"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/10/'06 9AM
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/10/'06 9AM
4/10/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- More than one (m) million expected to participate in immigration protests
- 30,000 expected in Atlanta for immigration rally
- US rally backs illegal migrants
- Latinos to march for immigrant rights
- A peaceful demonstration attracts more than 1,000 to Forsyth Park on Sunday afternoon.
- States move ahead with measures on illegal immigration
- Immigrant protests keep heat on Congress
----------------------------------------------
http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=4748093&nav=8fap
More than one (m) million expected to participate in immigration protests
Immigration reform may be stalled in Washington, but supporters of immigrant rights are moving full speed ahead.
Protests are planned today in dozens of cities, including the nation's capital, where more than 200-thousand people are expected to rally.Other big events are planned in Florida, Georgia and California.Jaime (HY'-mee) Contreras of the National Capital Immigration Coalition says this will be a day for immigrants to demand that Congress give them the dignity and respect they have earned.Demonstrators are seeking a reform measure that would legalize an estimated eleven (m) million undocumented immigrants.There were marches in at least ten states yesterday. In Dallas, as many as half a (m) million people turned out.------------------------------------------------
Posted Monday, April 10 at 6:41 AM
30,000 expected in Atlanta for immigration rallyby The Associated Press
DORAVILLE - Organizers expect thousands of people to participate today at a rally for immigration rights in the Atlanta area - including a group leaving Gainesville this morning.
The demonstration is scheduled to last from 9:00-2:00, Nicholls said.
Participants will gather in the parking lot of the Plaza Fiesta shopping mall at Doraville for what is being called a National Day of Action on Immigrants' Rights.
The event will coincide with marches around the country. Immigrants are protesting against the criminalization of illegal immigrants.
The Georgia Legislature passed its own crackdown on illegal immigrants during the past session.
Some say the U-S Senate's failure on Friday to vote on a compromise measure that would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants may cause the turnout today to be even larger.
Participants are being asked to wear white shirts.
(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this story.)
---------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4894632.stm
Last Updated: Monday, 10 April 2006, 01:03 GMT 02:03 UK   |
| US rally backs illegal migrants | ||
They called on the Congress to approve a provision allowing the immigrants to stay in the US legally. On Friday, the US Senate failed to reach agreement on a compromise deal that would allow illegal immigrants to apply for US citizenship. On Monday, pro-immigrant groups plan nationwide rallies on the issue. The protest, which included many Hispanic families, was partly to counter conservative's plans to make illegal entry into the US a crime. Demonstrators waved American flags and carried banners; many wore white, a symbol of peace. Other demonstrations were held in the Texan city of Fort Worth and Miami in Florida. Some protesters in the Dallas rally wore t-shirts saying "No HR 4437", referring to the House bill which proposes building more walls along the US-Mexico border. Police surrounded a group of about 20 counter-protesters who were in favour of uncompromising legislation passed in December which seeks to criminalise illegal entry from people without documentation. President Bush proposes a "guest worker" programme, but this has stalled amid the Senate deadlock. Monday's protests, which will take place in 60 of the country's major cities, could mark the beginning of a mass movement, with some analysts likening them to the civil rights protests of the 1960s, says the BBC's Sarah Morris in Washington. | ||
-------------------------------------------
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0410metmarch.html
Latinos to march for immigrant rights
Thousands in Georgia, across U.S. to rally in favor of reform
By TERESA BORDEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/10/06
Organizers expect thousands of white-shirted Latinos from all over Georgia to converge this morning on the parking lot of the Plaza Fiesta shopping mall on Buford Highway for what has been billed as a National Day of Action on Immigrants' Rights.
The event is expected to coincide with marches around the country, in cities from San Jose, Calif., to Siler City, N.C., by immigrants protesting in favor of broad immigration reform and against the criminalization of illegal immigrants. Some said the Senate's failure on Friday to vote on a compromise measure providing a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants actually will swell turnout.
"It's going to be the precise day to demonstrate the importance of the Latino community," said Adelina Nicholls, president of the Coordinating Council of Latino Community Leaders and an organizer of the local march. "They did not reach an agreement or a vote. That is nationally significant. It opens up space for reconsideration."
The Georgia Legislature passed its own crackdown on illegal immigration at the end of this spring's session, with a bill that establishes penalties for human trafficking, lets state police enforce immigration law upon agreement with federal authorities, prohibits employers of illegal immigrants from claiming their wages as tax deductions, and requires state and local authorities to verify that benefit recipients are in the country legally.
Nicholls said she hopes today's crowd will reach 40,000 marchers, who will leave Plaza Fiesta, march along Dresden Drive, circle around the Brookhaven MARTA station and return along Dresden to Plaza Fiesta, where they will rally until about 3 p.m. She said they are being encouraged to wear white T-shirts and to bring U.S. flags, the latter in response to heated criticism by talk radio commentators and others that Mexican flags waved at previous marches showed that immigrants don't want to assimilate.
Nicholls said buses, car pools and rented vans are expected to bring in participants from as far away as Gainesville, Dalton, Carrollton, Statesboro, Tifton, Claxton and Savannah. She said even a pastor in Nashville called and promised to bring a group.
Closer to home, protesters will come in from Cobb and Gwinnett counties. Gwinnett has the state's largest immigrant population, with one out of every five residents being foreign-born.
Ricardo Hernandez Herrera, 54, of Norcross, plans to be among those marching today.
"I want to show that we're not criminals," said Hernandez, who entered the country illegally from his native Mexico and is now the janitor at a pastry-making plant. "We're very responsible. And we work hard."
Hernandez said that while he plans to skip work for the march, that's not the case for many of the Central American natives that work at his plant. But he expects a strong showing by Gwinnett's population of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, who number nearly 75,000, according to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
Across the country, organizers in large cities and small towns made tentative predictions of turnout: up to 200,000 in Washington; up to 10,000 in Houston, and Tucson, Ariz.; up to 5,000 in Philadelphia; and 500 to 1,000 in Siler City.
However many show up, Nicholls said they'll make a statement.
"Finally, unity makes for strength," she said. "We want to stop being invisible."
Staff writer Brian Feagans contributed to this article.
-------------------------------------------
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/040906/3777543.shtml
| Local News | Web posted Sunday, April 9, 2006 |
 | |
A peaceful demonstration attracts more than 1,000 to Forsyth Park on Sunday afternoon.
|
and Andr�s Escolar
SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS
Click to view the Slideshow More than 1,000 people gathered in Savannah's Forsyth Park on Sunday afternoon, staging a peaceful demonstration in support of easing federal immigration rules.
Hispanic families carried American flags and placards, chanting "Si se puede!" - "It can be done!" - as they walked the park's length and then returned to a speakers' platform near the fountain.
They came from throughout southeastern Georgia and coastal South Carolina, saying they seek the same opportunities afforded to Savannah's earlier Greek and Irish immigrants.
They celebrated America as they listened to speeches mostly in Spanish.
"We already pay taxes," read one placard raised in a crowd dense with red, white and blue American flags.
"I am American," read another.
"We are not criminals," read yet another.
Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Sgt. Armando Tamargo, along with rally organizers, estimated the crowd at more than 1,000.
Martin Ruiz, who owns a painting business in Hilton Head, was there with an extended family that included his mother, sisters, nephews, nieces, wife and son.
Ruiz, 28, said he has lived in the U.S. for 15 years - and has spent the past seven years applying for U.S. citizenship under the sponsorship of his parents, who are citizens.
As Ruiz saw it, Sunday's demonstration was about fairness for hard-working undocumented workers seeking to participate in the American immigrant tradition.
His brother has obtained citizenship, he said. His three sisters and his wife have all applied - but are wrestling with the federal immigration bureaucracy.
His wife, Miriam Sosa, will likely take an additional 10 years for her citizenship application after Ruiz's own is granted, he said.
"It can take a lifetime," he said.
Sunday's demonstration came at a time when immigration reform - including a Senate bill that would crack open the door to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for at least five years - has become bogged down in the U.S. Congress.
Opponents of reform cite national security concerns - including the need to control the nation's borders. And some worry about the demands illegal immigrants place on social services.
Supporters argue that opening the door to undocumented workers is a matter of being fair to people who, as a group, work hard and contribute to the U.S. economy.
Father Teo Trujillo, a native of Colombia who serves St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church in Hilton Head, said now is the time to change U.S. immigration rules. "Together in the path of hope, we are no longer foreigners," Trujillo said in Spanish.
"We have two lungs - a Hispanic lung, and an American lung. Without both, we cannot breathe," Trujillo said.
The event was sponsored by a coalition of Hispanic organizations in southeastern Georgia and South Carolina.
Organizers encouraged the waving of American flags, and asked folks to leave the Mexican flags at home, said Mariela Orellana, one of the organizers.
"Our intention is to introduce ourselves to Savannah - just like when a guest comes to your home," Orellana said.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/14304944.htm
Posted on Sun, Apr. 09, 2006
States move ahead with measures on illegal immigration
BY DAHLEEN GLANTON
Chicago Tribune
IMMOKALEE, Fla. - Facing the prospect that Congress might not come up with a new federal immigration law this year, state legislators are taking the matter into their own hands, proposing measures to make their states less attractive to illegal immigrants and to punish companies that hire them.
While much of the national debate has centered on the U.S. House bill that would crack down on undocumented workers, immigrant communities across the country are bracing for new state measures as well.
Almost 400 immigration-related bills have been introduced in 42 states since January, a result of the public outcry over the federal government's failure to secure America's borders, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
As thousands of immigrants and their supporters take to the streets across the country Monday to observe a National Day of Action, they will be demonstrating not just against what is going on in Washington, but what is happening in their own state capitals.
"Migrant workers are central to the economy in Florida and the rest of the country," said Gloria Hernandez, a Farmworker Association of Florida community coordinator in Immokalee, a community of an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Mexican, Dominican and Haitian immigrants. "We are the ones who pick the vegetables, clean the hotel rooms and work in the restaurants. If we stop for one day, everybody, including President Bush, will notice."
Hernandez's state has one of the country's largest populations of illegal immigrants, and there are already stringent laws on the books there. Now legislators in states with newer populations of immigrants are trying to address the issue locally.
"There is a sense that states are trying to be responsive to the public and its frustration with the size of the illegal immigrant population," said Ann Morse, program director at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It is happening across the board. Traditionally, immigration came to the big six states; now almost every state is grappling with it."
A bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate fell apart Friday when Democrats and Republicans could not agree on how to proceed with a bill to tighten the borders and offer a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have been in the country at least five years. Even if passed, the Senate bill would have to be rectified with the stricter House bill, which calls for stronger enforcement measures and includes no route to citizenship.
Federal law pre-empts any state or local laws on immigration, but while Washington struggles with the issue, the states are pushing ahead.
Georgia lawmakers recently passed a sweeping bill denying state benefits such as unemployment compensation and non-emergency medical care to adults in the United States illegally and withholding tax deductions from companies that knowingly employ them. The bill, which would take effect in July 2007 if Gov. Sonny Perdue signs it, also requires police to notify U.S. immigration officials when they arrest an illegal immigrant.
Georgia's Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the bill as a group of immigrants protested on the Capitol steps. Supporters claim that the growing number of illegal immigrants have burdened schools and the health care system. Opponents argued that bill would be an inappropriate use of state resources and cannot solve any of the relevant issues related to immigration.
"It criminalizes employers and employees and creates a cumbersome mechanism to accomplish that. You can call it harsh or just plain stupid," said state Sen. Sam Zamarripa, a Democrat who chairs the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. "There is a mob mentality here that is trying to pander to a group of people who have been riled up by talk radio."
In Virginia, lawmakers proposed blocking illegal immigrants from getting marriage licenses. Tennessee legislators introduced more than a dozen bills this session, including one that would train state troopers to seize illegal immigrants. Tennessee also recently stopped issuing driving certificates, which allowed illegal immigrants to drive without a driver's license, after officials found that some were using fake papers to obtain them.
Measures in New Hampshire and North Carolina would give enforcement power to the local police. In Arizona, some lawmakers want to build a wall at the border with Mexico and install a $50 million radar system to track those attempting to cross it.
In Florida, there are already stringent laws on education, health care and unemployment compensation. As in most states, children of undocumented workers in Florida are classified as non-residents and must pay higher out-of-state tuition to attend college. In 2004, immigrant children were denied access to Florida KidCare after the state revised eligibility requirements for the program, which provides health insurance for minors. Seasonal farm workers and construction workers also are ineligible for unemployment compensation.
Most of the bills introduced in state legislatures would crack down on illegal immigrants, but some of the bills would go in the other direction, lessening some of the current restrictions.
Some states already have eased the rules. Illinois is one of 10 states that allow long-term illegal immigrant students to become eligible for in-state tuition. But the state has rejected measures to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. Nebraska and New Jersey are among the states considering allowing undocumented workers to get driver's certificates.
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington found that the public is split over many of the proposals to address the country's estimated 11 to 12 million unauthorized migrants. Fifty-three percent said people who are in the United States illegally should be required to go home and 40 percent said they should be granted some kind of legal status that allows them to stay in America.
The battle over immigration already is hitting hard in places such as Imokalee, a community that looks like it could be almost any small town in Mexico. Latin music blares from shops adorned with colorful hand-painted signs written in Spanish. People walk along casually, making their way home after a long day working in the fields picking tomatoes and oranges.
But residents say it is no longer safe to sit on a crate on the sidewalk talking with friends or allow their children to ride a bike down Main Street.
"Right now people are scared because they don't feel empowered," said Gloria Hernandez, a community organizer working to educate residents, most of whom do not speak English, about the immigration bills in Congress. "Most of them don't watch television, see the news or read the newspaper, so we have to inspire them."
In a scene being played out across the country, about 200 farm workers and their families gathered in an auditorium recently as Hernandez and others talked for three hours about the value of undocumented workers to the U.S. economy.
Andres and his wife Anastacia, illegal immigrants who declined to give their last name, are caught in the middle of the national squabble, but until that night, they did not understand what it was all about. But they figured out the most important thing: Some people want to take away Andres' $10-an-hour construction job, kick his family out of the tiny house they rent for $510 a month and send them back to Mexico. Andres left his home in Hidalgo 10 years ago.
As a result, Andres and Anastacia keep their children close and try to stay out of sight as much as they can.
"Before, we could walk in the street freely. Now we are scared to go out," Anastasia, 32, said through an interpreter. "I wish they would change the law so people can live without fear."
It is hardest for the couple's 10-year-old son, Guadeloupe. His father has not talked to the three children about what is going on because he does not want to scare them. But Guadeloupe already knows.
"I feel scared all the time," said the third-grader, who was born in this country and often is the English interpreter for his parents. "There is not going to be nobody to take care of me. No one to make my food. I think about this a lot."
The family came to the recent rally here because they wanted to know about the bills pending in Washington. Andres, 36, left the meeting feeling very uncertain, not sure whether the dream he had for his children will be fulfilled.
"I want them to study and become somebody. This is why we came to America," he said through an interpreter. "We want them to have a better future than we did. We went through a lot to get here and it is being taken away."
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0410natimmig.html
Immigrant protests keep heat on Congress
By BOB KEEFE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/10/06
San Diego, Calif. — In a boisterous prelude to rallies planned nationwide today, thousands of demonstrators marched through this city just north of the Mexican border Sunday, demanding comprehensive immigration reform.
The "March For Hope, Dignity and Respect" in San Diego, less than 20 miles from Mexico and the country's busiest border crossing, came two days after a highly touted Senate immigration bill stalled amid partisan rancor.
 D.J. PETERS/AP Photo/Fort Worth Star-Telegram | ||
| Thousands of demonstrators take to the streets in front of Dallas City Hall on Sunday in support of immigration reform. | ||
 SANDY HUFFAKER/AP | ||
| Jessica Pelayo (center) cheers along with other during the Immigration March for Dignity, Respect, and Hope in San Diego. | ||
 |
"They're playing games," Michelle Sanchez, 29, a nurse of Mexican descent who was born in California, said of lawmakers. "They tell us they don't want us, but then they turn their backs and profit from our work in construction, from fruit, from the vegetable fields."
By some estimates, more than 15,000 protesters turned out in the first hour of the rally in San Diego.
Together, they created a sea of American and Mexican flags — as well as a few from other countries — and a cacophony of chants such as "Amnesty Now" and "Who are we? Immigrants. What do we want? Legalization."
Many said they were there not for themselves, but for family members who are illegally in the country.
"I have a lot of family who are affected," said 19-year-old college student Francisco Gomez, wearing a shirt that read "I'm a U.S. citizen and I can vote." "They don't have a voice here ... but we do."
Today, immigrant rights groups plan to stage similar rallies in more than 120 cities across the country, from Atlanta to Los Angeles. The biggest is expected to be in Washington, where organizers hope to draw 200,000. In San Diego, groups plan to a hold a vigil dedicated to immigrants who have died while trying to cross the border illegally.
The rallies could result in temporary work stoppages across the country, from hotels and restaurants in Georgia to vegetable fields in central California.
Organizers say they will keep up the civic activism and potential work stoppages until Congress passes laws that they think satisfactorily address the status of an estimated 12 million immigrants now living illegally in this country and smooth the way for future generations to work and live in the United States.
"It's clear to move through this blockage our elected leaders are going to have to feel a lot more heat," Tom Snyder, political director for the Unite Here union said in a conference call with reporters Friday. The union represents about 450,000 textile, hotel and restaurant workers. "That's our focus now."
Added Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization: "Every time we march, we make progress."
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee pledged Sunday to have a measure ready for debate soon after lawmakers return to Washington in two weeks, and he expressed optimism that it could pass.
"I think tempers will cool over a two-week period. And also, there are going to be some expressions by many people very unhappy with the Senate not passing a bill and very unhappy with the House bill" that would make being an illegal immigrant a felony and penalize those who employed such immigrants, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told "Fox News Sunday."
In response to criticism from some lawmakers about the immigrant rights rallies, Munoz compared them to the black civil rights marches of the 1960s and the Boston Tea Party that spurred the American Revolution.
Clearly, immigration issues are testing the nation's consciousness. In an AP-Ipsos poll released Sunday, 13 percent of respondents said immigration was the nation's top problem — four times the number who said that in January. Immigration ranked slightly below the economy and the war in Iraq in the survey of 500 adults, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
In San Diego, Sunday's march was a mixture of union members and religious groups, Hispanics and whites, students and shipbuilders, farm workers and nurses. One marcher held a sign that read "Minutemen YOU work the fields," referring to the controversial volunteer border patrol group. Another sign read "We march today — we vote tomorrow."
Many had their own immigration stories to tell, about themselves or their parents or their next-door neighbors.
"Historically we say this is a country of immigrants and initially we were very proud to say that," said Carmen Duron, 76, a retired nurse and an outgoing leader of the Service Employees International Union local.
Duron's parents immigrated to Arizona from Mexico before she was born. Her father worked in mineral mines in Bisbee, Ariz., before the family moved to the vegetable fields in California's Central Valley and became legal residents of the United States, she said.
Pedro Ruggere, a priest at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic church in the border city of San Ysidro, Calif., said he was the descendant of immigrants, too. His parents came from Italy.
Ruggere said the United States and Mexico have a "special relationship" because of their proximity and history, including the Mexican-American war that changed the border overnight. As a result, Mexican immigrants shouldn't be compared to the turn-of-the-century immigrants like his parents from Europe and other countries.
"It's a different model," he said, adding that Mexicans and Americans freely crossed the border for decades before immigration became a hot button issue. "They [Mexicans] shouldn't be lumped in together" with other immigrants."
----------------------------------------
--
Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
<< Home