"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/17/'06
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/17/'06
4/17/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- Should we lock out illegal immigrants from the U.S.? (AJC Blog)
- Gingrich warns 'Americans want change' (Macon Area Online)
- Illegal Immigration Issue Frustrating For Local Law Enforcement (Access North Georgia)
- Zamarripa's influence global (MSNBC / Atlanta Business Chronicle)
- Opponents of illegals fire back with rallies of their own (AJC)
- State to focus on human trafficking (AJC)
- Lawmakers need to explain stances on college forum (AJC)
---------------------------------
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/aroundss/entries/2006/04/17/should_we_lock.html
AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog
Should we lock out illegal immigrants from the U.S.?
By JIM OSTERMAN | Monday, April 17, 2006, 07:18 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you need a fast way to get a discussion going these days, just say the words "illegal immigration" and watch the fur fly. The day laborers we see every day at Roswell Road and Copeland, hoping for work, is a scene played out across the country on a daily basis.
During the election, several supposed voters weighed in on this site, saying they hoped the major and city council would do something about those people. What I think they meant was that some sort of political magic wand would be waved and suddenly every Hispanic person would disappear from 30328 and the surrounding upscale 'hoods.
The whole immigration issue is chockful of essay questions. The only question that might require more verbiage is: "Do these jeans make me look fat?"
To wit: Why don't we just round them up and send them back? A valid question, since a law is being broken. But allow me the luxury of answering a question with some questions.
Where do we get the manpower to screen every single person who may be here illegally? And keep in mind that there are illegals from more countries than Mexico breathing our fresh air. That's a lot of people to check. And it's not like anyone without proper documentation is going to show up at the INS office, packed and ready for the trip home.
How do we cost-effectively send them home? Who pays for the planes, trains, buses, boats and planes? The illegals? Do you want to try and collect bus fare from someone you're kicking out of the country?
Are we prepared for life without all the people who do all those things that we take from granted? Who's going to hang the drywall, do the brick work, bus the tables, cut the grass, wash the cars, build the homes, etc? Talk to enough builders and you'll find out that one reason their work crews tend to be virtually all Latino is that they know that segment of the population will show up on time and put in a solid day's work. Talk to a fast-food restaurant manager and find out how many WASP kids apply to flip burgers. And of that group how many are prone, without notice, to go MIA?
Why not just grant blanket amnesty? Simply put, the sudden influx would bring social services to a halt. And is it amnesty for those already here? Those who are resident here as of a specific date? The other potential problem is that undocumented is uncounted. And do we now relax laws if enough people are breaking them?
Why not choke the demand by fining the employers? Again, it gets down to a manpower issue. Who's going to go from job site to job site, hit all the restaurants and flag down every guy with a lawn mower attached to his truck? And do we want people going house to house, making sure every maid, nanny, etc., has papers?
Why not build a wall? Hire more border police? And who gets to pay for all that 24/7 protection?
I love this county. I'm the kind of guy who takes off his cap and sings the national anthem at ballgames. I may not always like this country, but I do love it. Thanks to the hard work of a lot of people over the last two centuries this is the greatest nation on earth. If you need proof, just look at the line of people wanting to come in and jump through the hoops so they can say: "I'm an American."
I usually try to come armed with the solution, or at least some ideas, but it this case I only have questions. Especially this one:
How to we, as good Americans, lock out those who want to live in of the land of opportunity?
----------------------------------
http://www.maconareaonline.com/news.asp?id=13861
| Gingrich warns 'Americans want change' |
| By: Reuters |
 Sun Apr 16, 2006 5:19 PM ET (Pic)- Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich is shown in this file photo. The Republican Party is in serious danger of losing political ground in November elections if it does not enact reforms that eliminate waste and hold the federal bureaucracy to higher standards, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Sunday.REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque WASHINGTON (Reuters ) - The Republican Party is in serious danger of losing political ground in November elections if it does not enact reforms that eliminate waste and hold the federal bureaucracy to higher standards, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Sunday. "I think they're in very serious danger of having a very bad election this fall," Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday. "You have to respect the right of the American people to say they want change," he said, criticizing the federal government's bungled efforts to cope with Hurricane Katrina and the Republican-led Congress' failure to enact immigration reforms. "Are they going to learn some lessons and get their act together?" Gingrich asked. Republicans currently outnumber Democrats 231-201 in the House and have a 55-44 advantage in the Senate. The former representative from Georgia said the "debacle" over measures to strengthen U.S. borders and create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants "was one more piece of the puzzle" for many voters who have lost faith in Republican leadership. "The country absolutely wants control of the borders," Gingrich said. "The country absolutely wants us to insist that becoming an American citizen requires that you passed a test in English." A well-designed guest worker program would have the support of 75 percent to 80 percent of the American people, he said. With the federal budget deficit at record levels, Gingrich said Americans are losing patience with "pork," the discretionary spending earmarked to benefit local political constituencies. "We were sent here to reform Washington, not to be co-opted by Washington," he said. |
---------------------------------
http://www.accessnorthga.com/articles/afullstory.asp?ID=103032
Posted Monday, April 17 at 9:29 AM
Illegal Immigration Issue Frustrating For Local Law EnforcementStan Hall 4/17/06
If you find yourself in a position where you are in violation of the law, it is doubtful that you would share a table with a police officer for a morning cup of coffee. In fact, you would probably do all that you could to avoid any contact with the police. Typically, if you have violated the law, one would expect that they might be arrested if the police have knowledge of the violation. While that may be the typical response, it most certainly is not always the case.
People who are in our country illegally are without a doubt in violation of the law, not only do they not avoid the police but they have no fear of being arrested for their offenses. They mingle openly with police officers each day and have no fear of repercussions for their actions or their boldness. This behavior is being tolerated for reasons that are unfortunately beyond the control of local law enforcement officers. Immigration laws are enforced by federal officers employed by I.C.E. (Immigrations & Custom Enforcement).
Local law enforcement, with very little exception, does not have the authority to enforce these laws even if they wanted to. It is fairly obvious that this message has been broadcast pretty clearly to those who find themselves in this group. What is more concerning is that there are other groups who are taking advantage of this free pass in our country whose homeland is no where near Mexico. It is also frustrating for law abiding citizens, who see these contacts between law enforcement and illegal aliens being made, with nothing being done. While the burden of enforcement has been placed on ICE, they are ill prepared to handle the number of illegals in this country. If you believe the estimates of illegals in our country, which some people believe to be near thirteen million, the ratio of officers to offenders is more than 5000 to 1.
Efforts have been made to give local law enforcement the authority to enforce immigration laws. If accomplished, 750,000 local law enforcement officers would suddenly be added to the number of officers who can make arrests of those persons who are found to be illegal. The CLEAR Act (clear law enforcement for criminal alien response) appeared to be on its way to becoming law, which was sponsored by Congressman Charlie Norwood of Georgia. As the bill began to gain support, one roadblock after another began to attach itself to the bill and after three years it is far from being passed into law. Even local law enforcement had backed away from the bill, based on fears that they are not equipped to handle the certain increase in work loads that the arrests would cause. Other critics of the bill say that by placing local law enforcement in a position of immigration enforcement, it may harm the relationship with minority communities as far as crimes being reported and etc. Other groups oppose the bill based on a variety of reasons. These reasons are anything from concern over civil rights violations to a basic belief by some that these groups should be legalized and not penalized.
In the mean time, nothing changes. People who are in violation of the law continue to be and they continue to behave, unchecked, as if they are not in violation at all. One group sponsors marches as to why all illegal aliens should be legalized. Other groups form protests as to why none of them should be legalized. Very few people appear to be in the middle of this controversy. Fuel is slowly added to an already ignited fire. If nothing is done, one way or the other, that fire will undoubtedly reach a level where explosion is the only viable outcome.
And when this explosion occurs, local law enforcement will stand back, and watch the fires burn, still without a hose to extinguish it.
---------------------------------
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12349958/
Zamarripa's influence global
When state Sen. Sam Zamarripa won his seat in the Georgia General Assembly in 2002, he went in with an open mind and a commitment to volunteerism.
A successful businessman and managing partner in Heritage Capital Advisors LLC, Zamarripa, D-Atlanta, didn't want to be a lifelong politician, but he did want to bring his own experiences as a businessman, volunteer and Mexican-American to the state's political mix.
On April 12, Zamarripa announced his plans to step down and focus his efforts on his business.Looking back on his term, Zamarripa views his public service as timely. What became Senate Bill 529, laws to address illegal immigrants working in the state, incited Hispanic rallies 40,000 strong, sit-ins at the Capital and divisive debate statewide.
Among the rhetoric, Zamarripa's voice routinely rose to the surface with a mix of unrelenting conviction and preference for moderate discussion. Despite their legal status, immigrants should be treated with humanity and given social services, he said. Immigration is a federal, not a state issue, he said. Hard work should be respected, he added.
The words come from his own history. Zamarripa's father was of Mexican descent, but also a decorated patriot and career military man; he's now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
"I felt very lucky to be a part of the discussion," Zamarripa said. "I think one of the most dangerous things about the immigration debate is that it became extreme on all sides, and I have never felt that was constructive, especially when it relates to taking away from the humanity of people that come here to work. I wanted to moderate that."
Zamarripa now says he wants to concentrate on building partnerships between China and Georgia businesses.
"I'm a globalist," Zamarripa said. "I'm a person that is very interested in the competitive environment that we live in and I want my state and my country to be a winner. So I am going to work on things that make us a winner."
To accomplish that goal, Zamarripa plans to work closely with the Georgia China Alliance (GCA), a nonprofit group he helped create in 2003. He wants to build relationships with Chinese investors and companies. He wants to take trips to China to meet with companies and look for opportunities to bring international business to Atlanta, or take Georgia businesses to China.
"The Chinese aren't going to take all the currency in the world and aggregate it in China," Zamarripa said. "Just like any other business group, they are going to diversify their holdings and spread their distribution and manufacturing globally so they can survive the ups and downs of the economy."
This month, Zamarripa and the GCA will court Wusheng Chen, president of the Chinese companies Zhejiang Dongzheng Electrical Co. Ltd. and General Protecht Group, with a reception at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Chen was named one of China's top 10 entrepreneurs in 2005 and Zamarripa is working with him to bring new investment into the state.
Zamarripa also plans to work closely with the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) in its efforts to build on the state's trade relationships with China. Following a scouting trip earlier this year, Georgia is considering opening an office in China, said Bert Brantley, spokesman for the GDEcD.
"It's a tremendous market for us," Brantley said. "All of our major Georgia companies -- UPS, Coke, Home Depot -- are investing more in China, and we think that its big enough that we need to explore great opportunities for the state to draw investments."
Brantley also said that help from business people like Zamarripa is critical to Georgia's success in luring foreign investors.
"We have to rely on our business community to tell us what their experiences are and how we can help," Brantley said.
------------------------------------
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/atlanta/stories/0415metillegal.html
Opponents of illegals fire back with rallies of their own
By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/15/06
Local residents who say they are motivated by the recent show of force among Hispanics throughout the nation and here in Atlanta plan two separate protest rallies against illegal immigration at the state Capitol over the next three days.
A Smyrna mother-daughter duo, Pam Pinkard and Donna Walker, are staging "Americans' Job and Tax Rally" at 3 p.m. today. The women say they're relying on e-mail and word-of-mouth to draw people to their event, and have no idea how many will show.
"We have no organization," Walker said Friday. "We're just a group of people that are fed up."
On Monday, D.A. King of Marietta is holding a noon rally at the Capitol to protest recent calls by illegal immigrants for amnesty.
King, founder of the Dustin Inman Society — an anti-illegal immigrant group — has a far more organized network, although his most successful rally to date, held earlier this year, only drew about 75 people.
King said he believes rallies around the nation by illegal immigrants and their allies, including a Monday rally in Atlanta that drew an estimated 40,000 people, have stirred Americans to action.
"Let me say that I am very, very grateful to the illegal alien amnesty lobby for putting these rallies on," King said Friday. "I probably have received 5,000 e-mails, people asking me to do something to respond to the illegal aliens and their supporters rallying in the streets and demanding unconditional citizenship in this country."
King also said he doesn't know how many people will show up for his rally. But he doesn't feel competition from today's rally.
"I applaud them," King said of the Smyrna women, "for taking it upon themselves to organize resistance to what we all see happening in our state and nation. I think there should be a rally every day of every week from now until the day the government secures our borders and applies our law equally."
King's rally will feature several guest speakers, including state Reps. Melvin Everson (R-Snellville) and Matt Dollar (R-Marietta), a legal U.S. immigrant, an American landscaper put out of work because he couldn't compete with illegal immigrant labor and a spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control.
Pinkard and Walker say they got involved because of what they see happening around them. The women said many illegal immigrants are not paying taxes, yet getting certain education and healthcare benefits.
Pinkard said her husband was forced to shutter his remodeling and painting business because he could not compete with cheap illegal immigrant labor.
"All of my male friends in their mid-40s, I have watched every one of them lose their businesses," Pinkard said. "It's just been devastating to all of us. We cannot compete with the rate that the builders are paying illegal immigrants, which is also degrading to the immigrants."
Pinkard said she was bothered to see the thousands of Hispanics fill DeKalb County streetsMonday. "We got tired of seeing the marches, we got tired of knowing these people are there illegally ... why wasn't somebody arresting anybody? They had 200 DeKalb County police officers there."
So far, only John Konop, a Republican running for Congress in the 6th District, is scheduled to speak at the womens' rally.
Walker said they intend to hand out fliers encouraging people to report illegal immigrants in the workplace.
"There's no work if the businesses won't hire them because they're getting penalized," Walker said. "If there's no jobs, the illegals will go home."
------------------------------------
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0415mettrafficking.html
By MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/15/06
A bill awaiting Gov. Sonny Perdue's signature and two special task forces set up with funds from the federal government are adding muscle to Georgia's efforts to crack down on human trafficking.
Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) says his intent was to cut down on the flow of illegal workers into Georgia. The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act would make human trafficking a felony in Georgia with jail sentences up to 20 years.
"The hope was to send a message to coyotes and people who would bring people to Georgia illegally that this is the last state you would bring people to," Rogers said.
The bill also goes after pimps who force people into the commercial sex trade. "As a byproduct of this overall immigration legislation, if we can go after those people as well, I'm all for it," Rogers said.
Human trafficking is about making money off society's most vulnerable people. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are brought into the United States each year, according to a State Department report, and between 600,000 and 800,000 are trafficked globally.
There is no estimate for the number of Americans who are trafficked, but Fulton County Juvenile Courts alone see 10 to 12 cases per month of minors as young as 9 and 10 years old who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, said Patricia Crone, project director at the Juvenile Justice Fund.
As part of Washington's heightened efforts to curb the illegal trade in humans, Atlanta Police and the Cobb County Sheriff's Office have set up anti-human-trafficking task forces with three-year federal grants of $450,000 and $360,838, respectively.
As head of the Atlanta Police Department's anti-trafficking unit, Sgt. Donna Chambers is only too well acquainted with the misery of those trapped in this netherworld. She listens day and night to frightened young prostitutes who want to leave their pimps but can't. They tell her they are trapped.
"One of the reasons human trafficking is such a big business is they can resell their merchandise over and over again," Chambers said. "With drugs, they sell it once."
Chambers' unit hits the streets almost every day, following tips from the police department's vice unit and 911 calls.
Any crackdowns on prostitution is welcome news to Yvonne Smith and Flora Tommie, who say prostitution took over their Perkerson Park neighborhood, although it has eased in recent years.
Smith reached her breaking point in the summer of 2001 when she went to the park with her kids and ran into a man having sex with a young girl on a bench.
"I was so angry to know that people care so little about themselves," Smith said. "We had given up the park to pimps and drugs."
Smith, who runs Children's Paradise Academy, made fliers and encouraged volunteers to pick up condoms littering the park. Tommie says officials should do something about the strip clubs and bars close to public schools.
Chambers has found that many of her trafficking victims have been sexually abused at an early age and have never recovered.
"These are little girls and their lives are pretty much ruined," Chambers said. "When they come into adulthood, they feel like they're less."
The cycle won't change until society decides not to penalize what it considers to be "bad victims," said Covenant House Georgia's Alisa Porter. She draws a parallel between tolerance of slavery in the Old South and indifference today toward trafficking victims. Society did not consider black people to be human beings and therefore slavery flourished, Porter said. Today there's not much outcry about trafficking because prostitutes aren't sympathetic victims, she said.
"If we don't see sexually exploited children as victims, we don't have the will to change it," Porter said.
In Cobb County, Carole Morgan, director of the North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy, coordinates a countywide task force for the Cobb County Sheriff's Office that has educated police, service providers and translators about human trafficking.
"You've got the dynamics of sexual assault and the dynamics of domestic violence and the dynamics of everything all rolled into one," Morgan said. "The victims are terrified, and in many cases depend on the trafficker."
Cobb law enforcement agencies haven't had many trafficking cases yet, Morgan said. That could be because police are still learning how to identify such victims.
They are not always easy to find.
Take the case of Rosa, who ended up on a South Georgia tomato farm after entering the country illegally from Mexico in 2004. She had paid a coyote $1,600 to smuggle her in, and had hoped to pay off that debt in two months. Instead, after three months of living and working under harsh conditions, she had earned only enough to pay $400 toward her debt.
Rosa later escaped with the help of lawyers from Legal Services of Georgia, but she still sent $800 to the coyote who smuggled her into the country and supervised her on the farm.
If the governor signs Rogers' legislation into law, as expected, it would enable local police and prosecutors to specifically address trafficking cases and likely increase prosecutions. Victims' advocates say any new tool will likely help cut down on trafficking.
Under current Georgia law, prosecutors have to resort to a variety of minor offenses to charge traffickers, including assault and battery and stalking. These are misdemeanors that carry at most a 12-month sentence, said Ann Harris, an assistant district attorney in Cobb County. She helped draft the human trafficking provisions included in the state bill.
"Maybe a woman is beat up because she didn't perform — that is battery," Harris said. "And maybe on Wednesday and Thursday one of the women doesn't do what she's supposed to so she's kept in a locked room for two days. That's false imprisonment," Harris said.
"Having to prosecute these one at a time, you miss the big picture."
--------------------------------------------
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20060416/opinion/87568.shtml
Our views
OPINION
New questions have been raised as a result of the public forum on March 6 at Gainesville State College. The forum was held to discuss Senate Bill 529, an immigration control effort by the state. The bill passed both houses and now awaits a signature from Gov. Sonny Perdue to make it law.
Gov. Perdue should not sign the bill. Letting it die will save legal funds, calm controversial waters, maintain the increased tax flow in the state and county coffers and preserve his legacy in the history books.
Hall County sales taxes funding its school budget are providing more revenue than predicted, bringing in an unexpected $1 million. The state's revenue income also is much higher, now expected to bring in an additional $1 billion in taxes. This needs to continue, and our vast immigrant population needs to wait and see what is done at the federal level.
Perdue and other state leaders should do everything they can to help President Bush get a bill passed in Washington. The federal bill should grant a citizenship path for our friends and neighbors who have spent the last 20 or more years of their lives working here, paying taxes here and rearing their children here with no one objecting.
The federal government's failure to address the immigration problem has caused anguish for the native population as well as families of legal and illegal immigrants. Thus, the federal government must be the one to solve the problem.
The U.S-Mexico border must be controlled. Illegal immigrants with no criminal record who prove at least two years of residency here must be allowed to pay a fine and get on a citizenship track. At the same time, employers must be held accountable if they hire new illegal immigrants.
The same as other state schools, Gainesville State college has allowed the illegal immigrants who call our area home to enroll at the same price as all other residents. This means the illegal immigrants pay $853 to enroll rather than $3,165. Demanding $3,165 for enrollment would shut half the local population out of higher education and cause great damage to our community in many ways.
As for the public forum that the Students for a Progressive Society held at Gainesville State College: State Sen. Chip Rogers, key sponsor of SB 529, agreed to participate only if Jerry Gonzales, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, did not participate. Gonzales bowed out, saying he wanted to give local people a chance to hear Rogers.
Others participating in the forum were Gainesville City Councilwoman Myrtle Figueras; the Rev. Aquiles Martinez, a teacher at Reinhardt College, a private Christian institution in Waleska; Martha Zoller, a talk show host on WDUN-AM; and Tisha Tallman of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Each person spoke, but Chip Rogers and Tallman became the focus, with Tallman speaking strongly against SB 529. Questions also were taken from the floor.
Now Rep. Carl Rogers, R-Gainesville, says the forum was "loaded up." However he was there on the front row and could have been heard if he had wanted to speak. Carl Rogers also said the forum indicated "liberal" leanings of the college.
This was not a college-sponsored forum but a student-sponsored forum. The college should never forbid students holding a public forum on a controversial statewide issue, and it issued no statement on either side.
Unfortunately, the word "liberal" is a word used today by politicians who want to shut the door on a discussion. If they accuse the other side of being liberal, they don't have to explain their own thinking on an issue and they also don't have to explain what they mean by the word. It's a very convenient term to toss around.
Soon after the event, Rep. James Mills said on local radio that the forum and GSC's resident enrollment fees for illegals had caused other legislators to try to cut GSC funds out of the state budget. He said he and Carl Rogers had fought to keep the funds intact.
Other legislators have denied any knowledge of efforts to cut the college's funds. SB 529's sponsor, Chip Rogers, wrote in an e-mail: "I know of no threat to Gainesville College funds. If such a threat exists, it has nothing to do with me."
It would have been refreshing if Mills or Carl Rogers had objected publicly to the idea of a legislator cutting funds for a college merely because its students had held a public forum. But apparently neither has protested.
The same applies to cutting funds for a college because it is among those in the state that allows young illegal immigrants who have spent their whole lives here to enroll at the same price as other residents. They should take time to explain the tuition problem and propose a solution.
However, these two elected state representatives have projected their images as knights in shining armor saving a princess with bad character.
We need to know the Republican Party's position on this issue. State leaders need to make a statement.
Leaders of this city and county should make it known immediately that all our current long-time residents should have equal access to all local opportunities. They also should encourage GSC student organizations to continue holding public forums on controversial issues.
The new questions that this entire situation raises are: Do Carl Rogers and Mills think a public forum on a controversial issue should offer only the side that they personally support?
Do they think they have no responsibility to attempt to change the law that would deny higher education to half the local population of youths who know no other home?
Are they advocating government by cronyism? That is democracy's most dangerous threat because it closes participation to only those who agree with the officials.
Lack of immigration control at the federal level is a severe problem that can be solved peacefully if we move away from hearing only those with whom we agree and begin to listen to all sides.
Originally published Sunday, April 16, 2006------------------------------------
--
Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
<< Home