"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/9/'06 7:45 PM
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/9/'06 7:45 PM
4/9/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- Local Hispanics to take part in Day of Dignity
- Many regard immigrant workers as vital
- Immigration Rallies Planned Nationwide
- Thousands rally for immigrants in Texas
- Thousands Expected At Immigration March
- Democrats: Republicans could feel fallout from immigration bill
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http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20060409/localnews/85362.shtml
Local Hispanics to take part in Day of Dignity
By RICK LAVENDER
The Times
| If you're going
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A group will leave St. Michael Catholic Church for DeKalb County on Monday morning. The destination: a march in support of what is being called the first National Day of Dignity for immigrants.
Olga Rodriguez, Hispanic ministry coordinator at St. Michael, isn't sure how many will car-pool from the local church.
"The way we do it, people appear here and then we begin to look for space," Rodriguez said.
Members of the demonstration's coordinating group, March 17th Alliance, or Alianza 17 de Marzo, aren't sure either how many will appear at the Buford Highway shopping center Monday.
But the crowd expected for the 10 a.m. march that will loop back to the center, Plaza Fiesta, and end in a noon rally likely will number in the thousands, said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.
The event is linked with other demonstrations organized across the country as Congress wrestles with tightening immigration controls and coping with an illegal immigrant population the Pew Hispanic Center estimates at 11.1 million.
The Senate stalled Friday on legislation to overhaul immigration law, a day after leaders announced a compromise that seemed to smooth the way for passage.
President Bush has pressed for an agreement. House leaders have indicated they are willing to consider broadening the bill that cleared the House but focuses only on border security.
The Atlanta march also targets state legislation aimed at cracking down on the estimated 250,000-800,000 illegal immigrants in Georgia and the businesses that hire them.
Gov. Sonny Perdue is reviewing Senate Bill 529 and hasn't indicated whether he will sign it, spokesman Shane Hix said Friday.
The debate digs deep in Hall County, where Latinos, or Hispanics, make up at least a quarter of the population. The number of illegal immigrants is anybody's guess.
Saint Michael is supporting the march Monday because it is "for the dignity of all immigrants," according to the Rev. Fabio Sotelo, the church's pastor.
Rodriguez said the stance backs "the legal rights for the education and the health, in general, of immigrants."
Yet, as there is division among Latinos over how best to deal with illegal immigration, there are differences over the Day of Dignity.
Gainesville businessman and Mexico native Vicente Bautista favored the March 24 boycott and work stoppage by Latinos that affected businesses and schools. Bautista doesn't favor the coming march.
"I've seen (marches) in Mexico City," he said Friday. "It doesn't work."
From what he has heard, though, the demonstration in DeKalb could draw more participation than the recent boycott.
"I think it's going to be much larger," Bautista said. "I think after seeing the images in L.A., I think they're going to come out."
A pro-immigration crowd estimated at 500,000 protested in the streets of Los Angeles March 25.
Organizers planning the Atlanta-area demonstration are advising walkers to where white, which is symbolic of peace, keep their children in school and bring U.S. flags.
Protestors waving Mexico's flag in demonstrations in California and other states sparked anger among anti-immigration and other groups.
"We're making sure that we're sending the right message," Gonzalez said.
Spanish media has heavily promoted the event. DeKalb will provide traffic control, according to one media account. Gonzalez also stressed that the march and rally are for all immigrants and those who support them, not just Latinos.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact: rlavender@gainesvilletimes.com, (770) 718-3411
Originally published Sunday, April 9, 2006
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http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20060409/localnews/85381.shtml
Many regard immigrant workers as vital
Experts: Bill would impact Hall County directly
By HARRIS BLACKWOOD
The Times
With a growing immigrant population, Gainesville and Hall County likely will feel a direct economic impact of any congressional action on illegal immigration.
The landmark immigration bill, which would offer eventual citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, fell victim Friday to internal disputes in both parties. The legislation was gridlocked as lawmakers left the Capitol Friday for a two-week break.
Immigrant workers are considered by many to be a key component of the work force in some of the state's largest industries.
"It's generally acknowledged that the Hispanic labor force has been so important to the construction industry, to the hospitality industry and to some of the nondurable manufacturing, such as food processing," said economist Roger Tutterow of Mercer University's Stetson School of Business.
Many poultry processing companies now employ more Hispanics than any other demographic.
In making a case for a temporary or guest worker program, President Bush has made reference to "a job Americans won't do" in describing the manual labor roles that are often filled by Hispanics.
Tutterow takes issue with the concept.
"You can get Americans to take about any job if you pay a high enough wage," Tutterow said. "What is clear is the wages would have to get bid up higher if you were to take a large pool of potential workers out of the work force."
In a story this week in The Washington Post, Tom Hensley of Fieldale Farms, one of the Northeast Georgia region's poultry giants, said the Hispanic workers are a necessity.
"Reality speaks and it says that, absent Hispanic workers, we could not process chicken," Hensley told the newspaper.
Kit Dunlap, president of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, said many of her organization's members are dependent on the Hispanic work force.
At the same time, she acknowledges a need for enforcement.
"I think anybody probably agrees that illegal immigration needs to be stopped at the border by the feds," she said.
She said the uncertainty of what will come from Washington is the burning question.
"What is this guest worker or blue card program going to be? I certainly don't know, but it has to be answered," Dunlap said.
She said the benefits of immigrant labor have a flip side, the increased costs to taxpayers on health care, public schools and public safety.
Beyond the poultry plants, retailers, many of whom now market to Spanish-speaking customers, have felt the economic impact of the Hispanic immigrants.
Jimmy Hernandez, who started the Hispanic-marketing program at Milton Martin Toyota in 2001, said that Hispanics come here seeking the American dream.
"America has painted a picture that everything is possible in this country," Hernandez said.
He said there is an overall lack of hope in many Latin American countries and that buying a car is a symbol of both hope and status to newcomers to the United States.
Mario Lugo, 25, is a salesman at the dealership. He was born in Mexico, moved to Gainesville when he was 8 and attended public schools here. His parents accepted jobs in the poultry industry.
The oldest of five children, he said that, having grown up here, he considers Gainesville his home. He was the first of his family to graduate high school.
"You don't get that opportunity anywhere else," Lugo said.
He added that selling cars to people who are just experiencing what he did growing up is rewarding.
"It's like a dream come true for them," Lugo said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact: hblackwood@gainesvilletimes.com, (770) 718-3423
Originally published Sunday, April 9, 2006-------------------------------------
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191082,00.html
Immigration Rallies Planned Nationwide
LOS ANGELES — Even though sweeping immigration reform legislation has stalled on Capitol Hill and lawmakers have gone home for two weeks of holidays, Monday is expected to be a National Day of Action to draw attention to the future of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.
Many demonstrators got an early start on Sunday, signaling that what began as a string of disparate events in select cities has turned into a national outcry.
"We don't have a leader like Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez, but this is now a national immigrant rights movement," said Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which has helped organize Chicago-area rallies.
In Dallas, a rally to the tune of an estimated 150,000 people was underway Sunday afternoon. The march, organized by LULAC , or the League of United Latino American Citizens, was to wend its way from the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe — a symbol of liberation and independence — to Dallas City Hall, according to FOX News affiliate KDFW.
A smaller, similar protest is planned to occur simultaneously in the nearby city of Fort Worth, with some countermarches planned in northern Texas.
KDFW also reports organizers have asked participants to wear white shirts symbolizing peace, and to carry American flags as opposed to Mexican flags because immigration is "an American issue."
Several downtown retailers and sites, including the public library, have closed or were closing early in anticipation of the large crowds.
Activists say the Senate's decision last week not to push a bill that would have given many illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship is neither a cause for celebration nor a lost opportunity — it's a chance to regroup. And that's what they plan to do at demonstrations from Florida to Oregon that include school walkouts and marches.
As many as 65 cities were targeted for rallies, with more than 20 events scheduled on Monday from California alone. Among the day's activities are a rally scheduled in Bakersfield, a candlelight vigil in Los Angeles and a ceremony in San Diego dedicated to immigrants who have died while trying to cross the border illegally.
Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has been at the forefront of the Catholic Church's calls for activism in support of illegal immigrants, planned to lead the Los Angeles vigil.
In Georgia, where the governor is expected to sign a bill that would require verification of legal status before adults could reap many state-administered benefits, as many as 30,000 people were expected to march in an Atlanta protest, said organizer Adelina Nicholls. Her group, Alianza 17 de Marzo, staged a work stoppage last month.
Marchers there have been asked to carry only U.S. flags because organizers fear waving Mexican or other national symbols would inflame what they perceive as an already anti-immigrant public sentiment, Nicholls said.
Religious groups nationwide have been coordinating the protests in recent weeks, along with dozens of unions, schools and civil rights organizations.
Part of their goal has been to recruit more Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants. Most protesters have been Hispanics and high school or university students. In Montgomery County, Md., school officials have told the high school students on spring break that they will earn community service hours toward their graduation requirements if they attend the rallies around Washington, D.C.
Many groups had been preparing to rally since December, when the House passed a bill to build more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border; make it a felony to "aid, abet or encourage" illegal aliens through human smuggling and other actions; and make it a felony, rather than a misdemeanor, to be in the country illegally.
Those mostly local and regional efforts, supported by popular Spanish-language disc jockeys, quickly converted into national plans after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in dozens of cities last month, culminating March 25 with a 500,000-person rally in Los Angeles.
Different organizers have different agendas, but they do agree on the need to convert energy from protests into massive voter registration drives.
Voter registration and citizenship education initiatives are set to begin in several states after a "Day Without An Immigrant" campaign planned for May 1, an event that asks immigrants nationwide to stay home from work and school, and refrain from buying U.S. products.
"Marches will only get you so far," said Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights , a network of Hispanic activist groups in Southern California. "There has to be an electoral component to get the Republicans out of the majority."
Still, opponents of a guest worker program who say the blocked Senate compromise amounts to amnesty are not ready to back down.
"I understand, you know — the Senate, I think, was, quite frankly, intimidated by having hundreds of thousands of people in the streets waving flags, but I don't think we should pass legislation or devise legislation based on how many people you can get out into the street," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
"I'm going to have probably several thousand people outside my office today in New York. I mean, you can't allow that to intimidate you," he told "FOX News Sunday."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/14303932.htm
ANABELLE GARAY
Associated Press
DALLAS - Demonstrators banged drums, waved U.S. flags and shouted "Si Se Puede!" - Spanish for "Yes, we can!" - in a protest urging federal lawmakers to pass immigration reform that would legalize an estimated 11 million undocumented workers.
Police put the crowd at between 350,000 and 500,000 people. Rallies in the capitals of Minnesota and Iowa also drew thousands of protesters.
Dozens of demonstrations nationwide were set for Monday, a signal that what began as a string of disparate events - attracting tens and even hundreds of thousands of people - has become more coordinated.
"We don't have a leader like Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez, but this is now a national immigrant rights movement," said Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which has helped organize Chicago-area rallies.
Activists say the Senate's decision last week not to push a bill that would have given many illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship is neither a cause for celebration nor a lost opportunity - it's a chance to regroup. And that's what they plan to do at demonstrations from Florida to Oregon that include school walkouts and marches in major cities.
Across California, more than 20 events were planned Monday, ranging from a rally in Bakersfield to a ceremony in San Diego dedicated to immigrants who have died while trying to cross the border illegally.
In Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has been at the forefront of the Catholic Church's calls for activism in support of illegal immigrants, planned to lead a candlelight vigil.
In Georgia, where the governor is expected to sign a bill that would require verification of legal status before adults could reap many state-administered benefits, as many as 30,000 people were expected to march in an Atlanta protest, said organizer Adelina Nicholls. Her group, Alianza 17 de Marzo, staged a work stoppage last month.
Many groups had been preparing to rally since December, when the House passed a bill to build more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border; make criminals of people who helped undocumented immigrants; and make it a felony, rather than a civil infraction, to be in the country illegally.
Those mostly local and regional efforts, supported by popular Spanish-language disc jockeys, quickly converted into national plans after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in dozens of cities last month, culminating March 25 with a 500,000-person rally in Los Angeles.
On Sunday, many of those who crammed into the streets of downtown Dallas wore white clothing to symbolize peace. Marchers included families pushing strollers with their children.
Among the marchers was Marina Resendiz, a 25-year-old premed student at the University of Texas at Arlington who illegally came to Dallas from Mexico with her family as a teenager and went on to attend public schools in Dallas.
"It's hard to study if you don't have a green card. I graduated third in my class but I couldn't get any scholarships," she said as bells from the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe tolled in the background. "We don't want to be separated from our families."
One protester hoisted a sign that read "We love the USA, we work, we study, we contribute to the economy of the nation."
Supporters included business owner Michael Longcrier, who carried a sign that read "We work because of the hard working immigrants that work."
"I have friends in this march. I have friends that make my business work," said Longcrier, who said he employs at least one illegal immigrant at his used clothing business.
Hundreds of police were on hand but there were no reports of violence.
Dallas has a large Mexican population but is also home to immigrants from Kosovo, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, El Salvador, Colombia and other countries.
Immigrants and their children, U.S. and foreign born, account for 40 percent of North Texas residents. And about half of the region's foreign born residents are undocumented, according to a study by DFW International Community Alliance.
A similar march was held Sunday in nearby Fort Worth.
In Minnesota, more than 10,000 immigrants and their supporters massed outside the Capitol in St. Paul this afternoon to call for legal rights. Demonstrators waved flags from the United States, Mexico and other countries.
In the Iowa capital of Des Moines, more than 5,000 people gathered to rally against proposed federal legislation and to ask for greater understanding of the immigration issue from all Americans.
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AP writer Peter Prengaman contributed to this story from Los Angeles.
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http://www.wsbtv.com/news/8580202/detail.html
Thousands Expected At Immigration March
Perdue Mum On Bill's Future
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Tens of thousands of people are expected at an immigration march Monday in DeKalb County. It's in response to the Legislature passing a bill that would crack down on illegal immigrant workers.
Organizers met Sunday to finalize their plans. The event begins Monday at 9 a.m. at Plaza Fiesta on Buford Highway. The march begins at 10 a.m.
The General Assembly recently passed Senate bill 529, which would require adults to verify they're in the United States before receiving state benefits, such as health care.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has not said whether he will sign the bill into law.
"We've taken the steps we must take in Georgia, I think, out of a lot of frustration because I think a lack of action from a federal level," Perdue told Channel 2 Action News. "Immigration has never been a state issue."
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http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=102788
Posted Sunday, April 9 at 1:50 PM
Poll: Immigration High on List of Concernsby The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - People are now about as likely to mention immigration as the economy when they are asked to name the most important problem facing the United States, though both rank behind war in Iraq and elsewhere, an AP-Ipsos poll found.
Immigration's rise in the latest survey about the nation's top problems suggests the public is keeping close watch on the immigration debate in Congress and reaction around the country.
"Nobody is happy about the war, but the war is far away - the immigration issue is right here," said Dagmar Washington, a nurse from the A
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| "...the war is far away - the immigration issue is right here," | | ||
| Atlanta area poll respondent | | ||
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Efforts in the Senate to pass sweeping immigration legislation faltered Friday, leaving in doubt the prospects for passage of a measure that offered the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.
The rise in public concern about immigration over the last three months has been substantial.
When people were asked this past week to name the top national problem that came to mind, 13 percent said immigration - four times the number who said that in January. Roughly the same number, 14 percent of those polled, named the economy, according to the poll of 500 adults conducted April 3-5. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
More than 11 million illegal immigrants are believed to be in this country now, with thousands more coming in all the time. About 1.2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended last year along the nation's border with Mexico, according to immigration officials.
Ron Smith of Corpus Christi, Texas, has a front-row seat.
"A lot of it is happening where I live," said Smith, who lives about 150 miles from the Mexican border.
"When I was younger, the amount of illegals coming across the border was a lot less," said Smith, 51. "Now, I think there is a systematic disregard for the border patrol."
As immigration concerns have grown, economic worries have dipped. Only 14 percent now say the economy and related issues are their top concern, compared with 24 percent in October.
While consumers remain edgy and the housing market is cooler, the economy is believed to be growing at a brisk rate so far this year. Solid hiring totals during the last month pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest point in more than four years.
For Shirley Mosko of Tampa, Fla., the economy is a big concern that is tied closely to the war in Iraq.
"Iraq leads to this nation's economic problems," she said. "We didn't have the huge deficit before the war. I want to see the people of Iraq to form their own government, let them take control of their own country and I want us to get out of there as soon as we can."
About one in five, 19 percent, said they view war as the nation's top problem.
"The tax money we're paying is going to another country to rebuild it," said Charles Jones of Vancouver, Wash. "The Iraq war is going to hurt this country more and more."
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http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=36&url_article_id=13739&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2
Democrats: Republicans could feel fallout from immigration bill
04/09/2006
Legislative Republican leaders say passing a bill during the recently concluded General Assembly session taking aim at illegal immigration was doing what Georgia voters wanted.
Indeed, statewide polls bear out that argument.
But Democrats say one group of voters is upset with the legislation and is prepared to punish GOP candidates for it in November, from Gov. Sonny Perdue on down.
They're warning Republicans not to expect many votes from Hispanics.
"The perception is that Georgia Republicans are anti-Hispanic," said Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown, D-Macon. "It defines them as far as their attitude toward the Hispanic community."
The bill, which received unanimous support from House and Senate Republicans, would require Georgia adults seeking many taxpayer-funded services to prove that they are either U.S. citizens or in the country legally.
Businesses seeking government contracts would have to verify the immigration status of their employees. Companies doing business in the private sector would be discouraged from hiring illegals through tax penalties.
Critics charge that the portion of the legislation aimed at illegal immigrants is more punitive than the provisions affecting those who hire them.
For one thing, the denial of public services to illegals would take effect on July 1, 2007.
But the verification requirements for only the largest businesses seeking government contracts — those with 500 or more employees — would become law on that date.
Companies with 100 to 499 workers wouldn't have to comply with the new law until July 1, 2008, while the requirement wouldn't kick in for businesses with fewer than 100 employees until July 1, 2009.
Also, the verification provision wouldn't affect employees working for a company at the time the law takes effect.
"Private employers have literally been given amnesty with this bill," said House Minority Leader DuBose Porter, D-Dublin. "(For Republicans) to act so hard-nosed when in the fact the legislation does not do that has caused a backlash in the (Hispanic) community."
But Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson said there is no monolithic Hispanic community when it comes to reacting to the immigration bill.
Johnson, R-Savannah, said legal and illegal immigrants hold different views on what GOP leaders have wrought.
"My whole experience from the very beginning was the legal immigrant community was supportive and at the table," he said. "Even the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was neutral."
Johnson also noted that the bill includes provisions designed primarily to benefit immigrants, including increased penalties for human trafficking and a section aimed at "notarios," people who hold themselves out to Hispanics as legal experts able to help illegal immigrants get around the law.
The legislation's sponsor, Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, worked with Sen. Sam Zamarripa, D-Atlanta, one of three Hispanic members of the General Assembly, to insert that provision.
"Those who are here legally are appreciative of our efforts to protect that community," Johnson said.
But Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said Hispanics don't view the legislature's targeting of illegal immigrants according to whether they are here legally or illegally.
"Georgia is a very new immigrant state," he said. "I would tend to think every Latino registered voter has some proximity to someone who is an illegal immigrant.
"Many I've spoken to see (the bill) as immigrant-bashing, using Latinos as a wedge issue and not offering any real solution. They resent that."
Beyond what Hispanics think about the immigration bill is the question of whether Georgia has enough Hispanic voters to make Republicans feel what resentment they may harbor.
According to the Georgia Secretary of State's office, there were only about 37,500 registered Hispanic voters in the entire state as of March 1, a minuscule 0.88 percent of Georgia's nearly 4.3 million registered voters.
Even in Gwinnett County, with its large and rapidly growing Hispanic population, Hispanic voters only made up 2.2 percent of the mix.
But Gonzalez said those figures vastly undercounted Hispanic voters. He said an analysis his organization conducted in 2004 matching Hispanic surnames found an additional 40,000 registered Hispanic voters.
He noted that former Gov. Zell Miller squeaked through in his successful 1994 reelection bid by fewer than 35,000 votes.
As for whether Hispanics voting in a bloc could tip a close statewide election in Georgia, Gonzalez noted the 1994 defeat of former California Gov. Pete Wilson after the Republican pushed a referendum to deny social services to illegal immigrants.
"This whole notion that they're targeting a group that has no voice in the election process is a bad calculation on their part," Gonzalez said. "They are playing with fire on this issue."
Dave Williams is a staff writer for the Gwinnett Daily Post. E-mail him at dave.williams@gwinnettdailypost.com.
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