"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/4/'06 2:40PM
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/4/'06 PM
4/4/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- READERS WRITE (AJC)
- OUR OPINION: Let's employ the law (AJC)
- Roman Catholic Bishops criticize immigration bill (Savannah Morning News)
- Immigration debate divides Georgia town (Washington Post)
-------------------------------------------
http://www.ajc.com/tuesday/content/epaper/editions/tuesday/opinion_44138e1f22fd50a90006.html
READERS WRITE
Jerry Hulshult, William Meinert, Dean Poirier, Kathy Holt, Bruce J. Donaghey, Bob Koncerak, Morris Devereaux - For the Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Immigration: Responses to Jay Bookman's column, "Guest worker idea threatens U.S. heritage," @issue, April 3
Columnist's ideas worth looking into
Jay Bookman has captured the historical significance of the American spirit of "fair play" with respect to illegal immigrants. As a practical matter, we need to get past the illegal aspect. He points out that the "illegal immigrant" proposals being offered are unrealistic and unworkable, and he notes that existing circumstances require a more conciliatory solution.
His suggestion of an approach with three basic components --- tighter border security, employer penalties and humane handling of current illegals --- is superior to what's on the table today. After a period of time, immigrants would be eligible for citizenship.
We need to arrive at an accommodation with our good friends to the South, one that both governments and the people can live with. As a country, we have allowed the situation to fester until it is approaching a breaking point.
JERRY HULSHULT, Canton
----------------------
Bookman's right --- and so am I
I am a conservative, yet I read Jay Bookman's column on a regular basis. Once again, he has proved the wisdom of my doing this, since his views on illegal immigration are right on the mark. Unless we want to go down the path of the Europeans, with substantial underclasses with no hope of assimilation, we must provide a path to citizenship for anyone working legally in our country. If he and I can agree on the basic steps to take, why can't the politicians in Washington do the same?
WILLIAM MEINERT, Monroe
----------------------
Pay a living wage
Contrary to the oft-repeated common wisdom, there is no job Americans won't do. Their only expectation is to earn a living wage for doing it, so they don't have to live six to a room. If you think that's unreasonable, you're an elitist.
DEAN POIRIER, Duluth
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/040306/3763712.shtml
| Local News | Web posted Monday, April 3, 2006 |
 | |
Savannah Morning News
The state's top Roman Catholic officials criticized the General Assembly's passage last week of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.
The bill would prohibit tax-funded benefits for illegal immigrants and penalize employers who hire illegal workers.
"As pastors, we hear the fear and anguish of those who seek only to work and support their families whether with documents or without," said the Most Rev. Wilton D. Gregory, Archbishop of Atlanta, and the Most Rev. J. Kevin Boland, Bishop of Savannah, in a statement released Monday.
The bishops said the bill "does little to meet the needs of our immigrant brothers and sisters or of the state as a whole."
"It is not designed to bring immigrants out of the shadows, shut down the 'black market' of smuggling, fake documents or exploitation; restore the rule of law at our borders, workplaces or communities, or encourage those who settle here to get on the path to citizenship."
The bishops pledged "the Church's continued help in their spiritual and physical needs as enjoined by the Holy Scriptures."
--------------------------------------
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/0404edimmigration.html
OUR OPINION When politicians discuss immigration, they talk most often about securing the border and deciding what to do with those already here illegally. But comprehensive reform depends on whether Congress and the White House are also willing to get serious about stopping illegal hiring. The border security bill that passed the U.S. House in December and the immigration-reform measure that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week did demand stricter workplace enforcement. However, Washington hasn't talked much about spending the money needed to make that a reality. At least in Georgia, which passed its own legislation last week, the state knows it will cost $2.5 million to conduct 10,000 annual workplace audits, according to Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. If Gov. Sonny Perdue signs the new law, as expected, private employers who fail to document that they are hiring legal workers will get their tax deductions yanked. But the earliest enforcement could start would be 2009. The legislation also requires companies holding state contracts to document that all of their workers are legal, a provision that will be phased in beginning next year with the largest companies coming under the rule first. However, the law exempts existing employees from the verification process, creating a de facto "amnesty" for illegal workers already here. Nationally, the voluntary Basic Pilot program begun 10 years ago already allows employers to determine whether the Social Security number provided by a job applicant was actually issued to a legal worker of that name. The Senate workplace enforcement proposal would make use of that system mandatory within five years, a schedule that could be accelerated considerably if money were appropriated to quickly upgrade the system. As it is, the Bush administration proposes to allocate only $47 million for additional work-site enforcement next year, which would allow the hiring of an additional 171 special agents and 35 support staff members. In contrast, the Senate committee wants to nearly double the number of border patrol agents over the next five years from 12,000 to 23,000. In addition, the House wants to build a high-tech fence, at a cost of $1 million per mile, along a 700-mile stretch of the border between the United States and Mexico. Yet, at last count, the federal government employed fewer than 100 officers nationwide to crack down on illegal employers; last year, only 127 of the nation's more than 8 million employers were convicted for hiring illegal workers. And it's not just a question of money. The Social Security Administration can already identify those companies that routinely hire large numbers of workers whose Social Security numbers do not match their names. But federal law bars SSA from revealing that information to the Homeland Security Department, which enforces immigration law. If Congress can appropriate hundreds of millions for fences and high-tech surveillance equipment to catch people who cross the border illegally, it can surely find more money to catch the companies that hire those illegal workers. All it lacks is the will to do so.
The best way to stem the flood of illegal immigrants is to crack down on the companies that hire them
Published on: 04/04/06
------------------------------------
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002906897_immigga03.html
Monday, April 3, 2006 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Immigration debate divides Georgia town
By Peter Slevin
The Washington Post
|
PREV
"How many people can this country hold?" Hogsed asked. "I don't have the solution to it, but something's got to be done."
Hogsed is not alone in struggling to wrap his mind around the tide of Latin American workers who have remade this northern Georgia town. City schools are now 55 percent Hispanic. More children arrive each day with their illegal-immigrant parents, often directly from Mexico. The Yellow Pages include 41 pages in Spanish. St. Michael Catholic church, which once drew 25 people to a monthly Spanish Mass, now has 6,000 Hispanic families on its parish registry.
Their numbers show just how rooted the predominantly Mexican immigrants have become in Gainesville and throughout the South. They have put pressure on public services while becoming essential players in the local economy. Amid anxiety on all sides, neighbors, advocates and the new residents are assessing their presence and their future in a debate that resonates nationally.
Proponents of more generous accommodations for illegal immigrants staged a one-day economic boycott on March 24 that shuttered businesses and boosted morale. Business and farming leaders declared that immigrants are keeping them solvent. At a Mass on Thursday night dedicated to the immigrants, the Rev. Fabio Sotelo urged 300 parishioners to persevere, pray and write to the governor.
Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, is considering a strong anti-immigration bill delivered last week by the Georgia legislature. Congress is considering significant federal legislation, and Gainesville's congressman, Republican Nathan Deal, is among the firmest supporters of tightened borders and toughened measures. Lawyers for American-born carpet workers will argue to the Supreme Court this month that a Georgia manufacturer conspired to drive down wages by importing illegal laborers.
Gainesville advertises itself as "the poultry capital of the world" and it is the chicken-processing plants that are driving much of the city's startling growth. Since 1990, the official population has nearly doubled to 32,000, and the number of Hispanics has quadrupled to compose nearly half the registered population — and far more when illegal immigrants are considered.
"Reality speaks, and it says that, absent Hispanic workers, we could not process chicken," said Tom Hensley, chief financial officer for Gainesville's largest chicken plant, Fieldale Farms. "There aren't enough native American people who want to work in a chicken plant at any wage. We'd be put out of business."
A dozen years ago, Fieldale employed fewer than 100 Hispanics. Today, Hispanics total 3,000 in a 4,700-person workforce. To win jobs that start at about $10 an hour, applicants must present at least two identity documents from a government list of 18.
"If the documents appear to be legitimate, we accept them," Hensley said.
|
Gainesville Elementary, which was praised for excellence by President Bush in his 2004 Republican National Convention speech, greets one new student a day in a school already 70 percent Hispanic. Nine in 10 students qualify for subsidized meals. Educators draft letters in two languages and visit homes to urge parents to support the students.
"We're not going to ask, 'Are you legal?' That's not our concern," said Principal Priscilla Collins. "We let them know that no one is going to come into our schools and do raids. That's not how America works."
Raids are much on people's minds. The telephones at St. Michael have been ringing in the past two weeks as anxious residents tracked rumors prompted by legislative activity in Atlanta and Washington. Is it true, they asked, that immigration agents grabbed 300 people at Wal-Mart? Was there a roundup of 500 along Jesse Jewel Parkway? Will agents raid the schools on Friday?
No, no and no, Lucia Martin answered.
Martin was sneaked into the country from Mexico at age 3. She remembers being tucked under the seat of a truck and told to keep quiet. Her family moved to Chicago. Twenty years ago, she arrived in Gainesville when her husband found work on the chicken line. She works at the church.
"There's a supply. There's a demand. There's an opportunity and you take it. It's human instinct," Martin said. When white residents complain that the new immigrants should wait their turn, she answers, "Did your ancestors get a visa?"
Martin's worry is that new rules will make it easier for government authorities to target immigrants unfairly, by arresting people on a pretext to investigate their legal status. Angel Rojas, a Catholic Social Services worker, raised the same issue in advising an overflow crowd of educators and community workers to study the potential impact of proposed legislation.
"The main thing we need to understand is this affects everybody," Rojas said. He noted that one proposal would make it a crime to help an illegal immigrant remain in the United States. A number of Mexicans, he said, have told him they would rather return home with their worldly goods than risk losing all during deportation.
That would be cheerful news to legislators who have said they hope to increase pressure and create a deterrent. It also jibes with the thinking of Joe Merck, a working-class Gainesville native and advocate for the homeless who describes the city as "overrun."
"I don't blame 'em coming up here, but half of 'em are illegal. We're taking care of 'em. They're having all these babies one right after another," said Merck, 71. "You can go buy your credentials. It's a known fact, but nobody does anything about it. We need to send 'em back home."
Waiting for a ride, kitchen worker William Morton, 38, griped that he cannot obtain some restaurant jobs because he speaks no Spanish.
"This country's not right," Morton said. "The economy's went down for us and gone up for them and we're supporting Mexico."
Julia Perilla, who studies grass-roots Latino issues at Georgia State University, describes a "love-hate relationship" between the new immigrants and many Georgians, especially business people.
"On the one hand, they want us very badly. They are very, very dependent on Latino labor. On the other hand, there's an incredible amount of xenophobia that's on the rise in Georgia," Perilla said. "It's extremes. Nobody is in the middle."
--------------------------------------
Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
<< Home