"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep 4/5/'06 12:30PM
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/5/'06 12:30PM
4/5/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- Minutemen shadow town's day labor site (AJC)
- Threats to nix money for GSC raised red flags (Gainsville Times)
- Illegal workers have mixed impact on economic activity
(The Associated Press)
- Chambliss: Amnesty would be mistake (Gwinett Daily Post)
- Chambliss: Immigration bill stalled (Savannah Now)
- State agriculture commissioner addresses LaFayette Rotary Walker County Messenger)
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http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0405minutemen.html
Minutemen shadow town's day labor site
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/05/06
Herndon, Va. — Minuteman Bill Campenni stood on a sidewalk taking pictures of pickup trucks because he was not allowed inside the city-sponsored site for day laborers.
"This is probably the most secure border in the United States," joked the retired Air National Guard colonel, who once served in Texas with a fellow pilot named Lt. George W. Bush.
As Congress considers immigration reform and Hispanics across the nation march to protest proposed harsh penalties for illegal workers, thousands of folks like Campenni have enlisted in local battles over the influx of illegal newcomers.
"We're an expression of the frustration of people across the country," said Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. The group is named for the front-line militia that was among the first to fight the British in the Revolutionary War.
There are no Minuteman chapters in Georgia, Simcox said, but dozens of volunteers are eager to start them. He is in Georgia this week, speaking at noon today to the Georgia Association of College Republicans at Georgia Tech and at 7 p.m. Thursday to members of the Georgia Constitution Party at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Buford.
The Minutemen's largest effort is concentrated on the Mexican border, where Simcox said he will have 6,847 members patrolling this month. Since the organization's founding in Arizona in 2002, it has grown to 31 chapters in 24 states, Simcox said, and about 7,000 volunteers have received Minuteman training.
Simcox said more than 300 people have sought to join the organization since the Senate began debate on proposals last week that could give legal status to immigrants who entered the country illegally.
'Part of the landscape'
Much of the growth is in response to local immigration issues in places such as Herndon, a suburb about 30 miles from Capitol Hill, Simcox said.
Bill Threlkeld, director of the city site where day laborers come to find work, said he is unconcerned about Minutemen like Campenni, who watch from across the street as the workers, chatting in Spanish, reach into a jar and pull out chances at jobs.
The operators at the pickup site do not check would-be workers for green cards or other documentation.
"It's the employer's responsibility," Threlkeld said.
As for the Minutemen, who take photos to document the employers picking up laborers, "they're a part of the landscape," Threlkeld said. "They watch us. We watch them. We usually don't talk, but if we do, it's civil."
Minutemen are sometimes armed while patrolling the border with Mexico, but the Minutemen in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs carry only cameras and notebooks and describe their activities as more akin to a neighborhood watch.
"We don't have the authority or the ability to check workers for immigration status," said George Taplin, president of the Herndon Minutemen.
His members instead check to see whether the contractors picking up workers have proper business licenses and notify the Internal Revenue Service and state tax officials if they suspect employers "are hiring under the table and paying in cash" to avoid paying Social Security and taxes.
"Our goals are to get the government to enforce the laws," said Stephen Schreiman, the Minutemen Maryland chapter director.
But critics charge that the aim of the Minutemen observers is really to discourage workers and employers from going to the sites.
In Maryland, supporters of day labor sites have responded to the Minutemen surveillance by training their own observers.
More than 100 volunteers are ready to report any infringements of worker rights or intimidation, said Steve Smitson, manager of legal and social services for Casa de Maryland, which operates three day labor sites.
Suburban sites
The situation shows how immigration issues increasingly reach places far from the border.
The largest day labor site in the country is in suburban Langley Park, Md., where almost 350 workers a day come seeking temporary jobs during peak periods, according to "On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States," a national study by the University of California at Los Angeles.
The second-busiest site is in Chicago, according to the nationwide survey of 2,660 day laborers randomly selected at 264 hiring sites in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
The study concluded that 75 percent of these day laborers were illegal immigrants, with 59 percent born in Mexico and 38 percent born in Central America. Only 7 percent of the day laborers were born in the United States. Sixty percent had been in the country less than five years, according to the survey, released in January.
Campenni said he got involved with the Minutemen after the immigration issue invaded his "Leave It to Beaver-type neighborhood" of $500,000 to $600,000 houses. Three nearby residences were turned into "dorm houses" where dozens of migrant men paid $400 or so a month for a place to sleep, he said.
"Talk about exploitation — they're renting about half a bedroom," he said.
"We're not after the day laborers. Gosh, you have to have compassion for those guys," said Campenni, whose father emigrated legally from Italy. "It's the contractors who are the lawbreakers."
The Herndon Official Workers Center opened in December after a convenience store parking lot became the meeting place for hundreds of day laborers and scores of would-be employers. To maintain order, the city established the official center in the parking lot behind the former police department building.
A local ordinance now makes it a misdemeanor to solicit work outside the center, explained Threlkeld, who works for Reston Interfaith, a nonprofit group contracted to operate the site.
"It's costing the taxpayers $175,000 a year" to run the operation, said Taplin, a retired Navy officer. And that doesn't count the legal fees the city must pay to counter a lawsuit that Judicial Watch has filed in protest of public money funding what they argue is illegal activity.
Both sides in this immigration battle agree that the matter could be settled in Herndon's elections on May 2.
"It's a campaign issue," said Threlkeld.
"People in Herndon want to see this thing shut down," said Taplin. "And if we vote in a new town council, we can close down the site."
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http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20060405/opinion/83984.shtml
Threats to nix money for GSC raised red flags
Immigration forum shouldn't have upset Georgia's lawmakers
Our views
OPINION
A Hall County politician's remarks last Friday raised a red flag of danger concerning the thinking of some of our state government officials. Rep. James Mills said he and Rep. Carl Rogers had to fight to keep Gainesville State College funds in the state budget because a student organization had invited people to the campus to discuss the state's immigration problems.
It is true that Mills and Rogers had to work to keep the $5 million in the budget for the needed student center addition, and we are grateful to them. Gainesville State officials had been working to get those funds for about five years. It is the reason given for the funds' jeopardy that causes uneasiness.
Members of the legislature were unhappy with some of the state's colleges, including Gainesville, Mills said, without naming names, and giving only "liberal" actions as the reason. Mills did not say it, but others said legislators are unhappy that some of the college presidents have exercised their prerogative and allowed illegal residents to enroll by paying the same as other residents. This is not a new practice, but began many years ago when people in Georgia's academic world saw that hard-working illegal residents who might live in Georgia for the rest of their lives couldn't afford the extremely high tuition cost of a nonlegal resident. As an example, legal resident (in-state) tuition for a normal course load of 12 or more credit hours, or one semester, at GSC is $853. Illegal resident (out-of-state) tuition for the same course load is $3,165.
The Gainesville State forum on immigration "was the straw that broke the camel's back," Mills said. Another legislator said newspaper articles had left Gold Dome decision-makers viewing the forum as "slanted."
Students for a Progressive Society at Gainesville State, which sponsored the forum, invited all sides to speak on the immigration issue. Prominent forum participants were Sen. Chip Rogers, sponsor of the state's main immigration bill, and Tisha Tallman, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. This was a public forum for which attendance was voluntary, not a classroom activity with compulsory attendance and impact on student grades. If the state's colleges are not the appropriate place for an open exchange of ideas on important issues, then what venue would be appropriate?
Tense moments at the forum were handled well by the moderator, and the forum offered new information on both sides, exactly what it was supposed to do. Many took time to thank the student club members and forum participants; everyone left calmly, mentally digesting the views they had just heard.
Now we hear that legislators at the state Capitol were disturbed about the forum and considered punishment by withdrawing capital outlay funds that had been budgeted for the college.
Each year during the General Assembly session we get a few astonishing surprises. Some of the bills introduced in past decades have been so bad that they are the basis of some of our funny narratives today.
The idea of withholding funds from an institution because one of its clubs held a forum to discuss all sides of a state issue is so unbelievable that it forces us to stop and examine exactly what happens at the Capitol.
The General Assembly, a 40-day meeting of the men and women we have elected to solve society's problems, is a difficult job. Its members must have a little brainpower, a little courage and a lot of listening ability.
When Sen. Chip Rogers introduced his immigration bill, attempts for control at the federal level were getting very little attention. He knew that something had to be done, and he moved forward. He compromised in the manner that good legislators must do, giving his bill better balance. The result was a bill that proposed punishment of illegal immigrants, employers who hire them and human traffickers who prey on them.
The state's colleges that have allowed young illegal immigrants to get an education by being able to pay in-state tuition won't be allowed to do this anymore if Sen. Chip Rogers' legislation is signed by the governor.
With the resulting bill expected to pass, he took time from a busy schedule to explain it at different places, including Gainesville State College. Here, he dominated the forum until Tallman came in late and offered the other side. She said all his work was going to be thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court because the state was attempting to make law in the federal arena.
We don't know what happened when Chip Rogers and his supporters returned to the Gold Dome. We can only imagine that there was anger. We can only imagine that, during the angry moments, threats were made to cut the capital outlay funds for Gainesville State College. We all say and do ridiculous things in anger, actions that we regret for years.
If Carl Rogers and Mills had not taken the funds-cutting threat seriously, money possibly would have been removed from the thick budget pages without most officials realizing it until too late.
However, we must believe that a majority of the General Assembly recognizes the danger that such a move represents. We must believe that members of our General Assembly would never punish a state education institution because one of its student clubs held a formal discussion of a major state issue.
If we don't believe this, we don't believe in our democracy.
Originally published Wednesday, April 5, 2006---------------------------------------------
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=102671
Posted Wednesday, April 5 at 10:06 AM
Illegal workers have mixed impact on economic activity by The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Illegal workers help some people in the economy but hurt others.
The millions of illegal workers from fruit pickers to office cleaners in the United States have come under a fresh spotlight as Congress and President Bush grapple with revamping the nation's immigration policies.
Illegal workers' relationship to the economy is intricate.
They are willing to work for lower wages than legal workers, helping to keep down prices. But illegal immigrants also can depress wages for unskilled, legal workers and strain local hospitals and schools.
``There is not a simple economic case here. It is complex. It is interwoven, and it is very hard to extract,'' said Terry Connelly, dean of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. ``It is like pulling some sort of piece of thread out of a fabric. If you pull that thread out, you don't know to what degree you have weakened the fabric.''
There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Some 7.2 million of them are employed about 5 percent of the U.S. labor force according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a research organization. The illegal workers are mostly men and are heavily concentrated in construction, agriculture and cleaning jobs, Pew says. Those jobs tend to be low skill or unskilled manual labor, economists said.
``From lawn services to meat packing. You name it. The primary benefit to consumers from illegal workers is lower prices,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight.
For businesses, cheap labor can translate into fatter profits. If owners use those profits to expand their businesses, it would boost economic activity.
While consumers and businesses may benefit from such cheap labor, the U.S. born-worker could be hurt by it, according to some research.
Between 1980 and 2000, legal and illegal immigration reduced the average annual earnings of U.S.-born men by an estimated $1,700 or roughly 4 percent, according to research done in 2004 by George Borjas, economics professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The situation was worse if one considers only the 10 million U.S.-born men who lack a high school degree. For them, the increased supply of workers depressed wages by 7.4 percent, he found.
Economists at the Federal Reserve banks in Dallas and Atlanta found no evidence in 2003 that wages of higher-skilled U.S.-born workers were hurt by immigration, although lower-wage workers were affected.
Illegal immigrants use federal, state and local resources, including schools, medical care and emergency services, straining government coffers and costing taxpayers money. However, many of the costs are tied to their kids many of them American-born children who are U.S. citizens.
At the federal level, the big cost is through Medicaid and food-assistance programs, according to Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stricter immigration rules.
Camarota acknowledges that some illegals pay federal taxes, but he said their cost to the federal government $12 billion, according to his estimate is greater.
There's another way to look at it. Since some illegals pay payroll taxes, they're helping to bankroll Social Security and Medicare but won't get to participate in the programs because of their status.
``From our standpoint, this is not a top fiscal issue,'' said Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union.
Experts note that illegals spend part of their paychecks in this country for food, clothes, furniture, living expenses and other things all of which contribute to economic growth. But many also send some of their earnings to their families in their native countries.
Still, they expand the nation's overall labor pool and productivity. ``We can make more stuff and that can add to overall economic activity,'' said Andrew Bernard, professor of international economics at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business.
In Congress, diverse proposals have been offered to deal with the immigration issue.
House-passed legislation takes a tough approach, including provisions making illegal immigrants' presence in this country a felony. A Senate proposal sets out a path that would make illegal immigrants who came to the United States before 2004 eligible for permanent residency.
If all the illegal workers in this country were booted out tomorrow, economists believe wages would have to rise significantly to get U.S.-born workers to take their jobs.
``It would take time for that to occur and during this period of adjustment some things might not get done maybe some crops won't be picked or some hotel rooms won't get cleaned,'' said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. In some cases, companies might opt to invest in machines and other automation rather than hire higher-paid workers, economists said.
Under these scenarios, consumers' prices could rise.
Two-thirds of Americans polled think illegal immigrants fill jobs that most Americans do not want, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll.
But the survey found greater ambiguity on whether illegal immigrants are good or bad for American society. Fifty-one percent said illegal immigrants mostly make a contribution to society, and 42 percent said they were mostly a drain.
Related Links:
The Pew Hispanic Center
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Center for Immigration Studies
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http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=1&url_article_id=13569&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2
Chambliss: Amnesty would be mistake
04/05/2006
By Dave Williams
Staff Writer
dave.williams@gwinnettdailypost.com
ATLANTA — Any immigration reform bill that gives undocumented workers a path to American citizenship would repeat mistakes Congress made 20 years ago in granting illegals amnesty, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said Tuesday.
"That was the trigger that got us into the situation we're in today,'' Chambliss told reporters during a telephone conference call. "People on the other side of the border saw a chance to come across illegally and get some kind of legal status.''
Chambliss is pushing an amendment this week that would remove from the bill a provision allowing illegal immigrants working in agriculture to become U.S. citizens following an 11-year process that would include undergoing a background check, paying a $2,000 fine and learning English.
His proposal instead would require illegal farm workers to return to their home countries after two years and re-enter the U.S. in a legal manner.
Senate leadership has set a goal of passing a bill by the end of this week and getting the illegal immigration issue into a conference committee with the House, which passed its version of the legislation last December.
Congress granted a limited amnesty in 1986 to some 3 million illegal immigrants then living in the U.S., which is believed to have touched off a wave of immigration primarily from Latin American countries.
Today, the nation's population of illegals is estimated at about 12 million.
"The '86 law failed, and it failed miserably,'' Chambliss said.
The same thing happened when Congress granted another amnesty to illegals in 1990, said Phil Kent, the Atlanta-based national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control.
"This would be the third amnesty,'' he said.
But Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said the influx of illegal workers into the U.S. is more the result of America's booming economy than those amnesty programs.
"There is a huge demand for labor, but we don't have (enough) legal means to come into this country,'' he said.
Gonzalez said Latin Americans who are willing to come to the U.S., do backbreaking labor in low-paying jobs and learn the language deserve the right to eventually obtain citizenship.
"Keeping people without a hope of opportunity would hurt the entrepreneurial spirit we want as Americans,'' he said. "Creating a path to citizenship would help in the assimilation process.''
Chambliss conceded that Senate Republicans are sharply divided over the issue. The bill that passed the Judiciary Committee and includes the 11-year path to citizenship has the blessing of Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the panel's chairman.
Chambliss said the one point on which all of the senators agree is the need to beef up border security.
But beyond that, he said the issue is so contentious that the Senate may not be able to pass a bill before the two-week recess that starts at the end of this week.
"This is the most sensitive issue, emotional issue and politically charged issue I've seen in my 12 years in Congress,'' he said. "We've still got a long way to go.''
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http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/040406/3766873.shtml
| Local News | Web posted Tuesday, April 4, 2006 |
 | |
'Amnesty' for illegal immigrants remains a key hurdle, state senator says.
Larry Peterson
(912) 652-0367
larry.peterson@savannahnow.com
A U.S. Senate bill to overhaul immigration law is going nowhere fast, Sen. Saxby Chambliss said Tuesday.
Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee wants a vote this week, before the Senate recesses for two weeks.
But Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, told reporters in a conference call that "it's going to be very difficult to do this week."
As it has been all along, the stumbling block is what has been described as "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.Under one widely supported compromise, illegal immigrants who've been here at least five years would be allowed to stay.
"That has been a very difficult hurdle to get beyond," said Chambliss, who opposes those provisions.
He and other foes say it would reward people for breaking the law, but supporters deny it's amnesty.
They say applicants would have to pay $2,000 fines - and any back taxes - and pass background checks before being allowed to stay.
Illegals who've been here less than five years would have to return home and face stricter re-entry rules. They represent an estimated 40 percent of the country's undocumented foreigners.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told the Associated Press a majority in the 100-member Senate supports the compromise plan.
But it takes 60 senators to end debate on a bill, and McCain, a major backer of the plan, acknowledged he doesn't have that many.
Most of the Senate's 44 Democrats favor the compromise but a substantial number of GOP members are opposed.
"There is much diversity of opinion as to where we ought to go," Chambliss said Tuesday following a meeting of about 30 GOP senators. "... We're going to continue to work this thing through. Hopefully ... we'll have a proposal we all can support."
Chambliss wants to streamline an existing "guest worker" program that lets foreign workers take seasonal jobs here and then return home.
Chambliss, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he wants to assure farmers "a good stream of quality workers whom they know to be legal."
He is seeking to amend the bill to achieve that goal.
Chambliss also said he favors a proposal by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., that any guest worker program include tougher measures to seal American borders.
"Whatever we do," he said, "if we don't secure the border, we're not going to accomplish anything."
A bill passed by the House includes extensive border security provisions but none for guest workers or amnesty.
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http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&pnpID=730&NewsID=708820&CategoryID=11576&on=1
| State agriculture commissioner addresses LaFayette Rotary | |||||||
| 04/04/06 Irvin, who has been a commissioner of agriculture longer than any other in the nation, covered those topics and others during a lunch meeting of the LaFayette Rotary Club Tuesday in LaFayette. One member of Irvin's staff was sent upon invitation to Israel to study how terrorists could contaminate the food chain, Irvin said. "The minister of commerce from Israel invited me to send one of my staff over to meet him at a world food seminar dealing with the terrorism of food," Irvin said. The nation's eyes have been focused on the country's sea ports and airlines, but the most fundamental resources, food and water, must also be protected. "The major interest of the people in Israel is, 'What can we do to protect our water?'" Irvin said. "We kind of take for granted we have to have water. We think water and food are major issues that could possibly (be compromised) if the terrorists try to attack us here in the U.S. These are areas where we've got to have a good preventive program to respond immediately." Illegal immigration, which fills many labor-intensive jobs such as working on Georgia's farms, was a hot issue in the Georgia Legislature's recent session. Irvin believes that issue "ought to be addressed at the federal level, and I think it eventually will be." Cases of avian flu occurred in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania four years ago, Irvin said. Action was taken then to prevent the disease from spreading to Georgia, and measures were put in place to quarantine the disease if it pops up. To date, it hasn't struck in Georgia. | |||||||
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Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
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