"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/25/'06
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 4/25/'06
4/25/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- Legalize longtime immigrants, most tell poll
- Winders: Vision for New Georgia a tad cloudy
- Ga. Town at Center of Immigrant Labor Case
- Expect racial lines to define state politics
- The need for immigrant workers
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http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/25/immigration.poll/index.html
Legalize longtime immigrants, most tell poll
Majority also favors proposal to deport more-recent arrivals
Supporters of rights for illegal immigrants demonstrate Monday outside the Capitol.
(CNN) -- More than three-quarters of Americans favor allowing illegal immigrants who have spent many years in the United States to apply for citizenship, according to a poll conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp.
In the poll, released Tuesday, 77 percent of those responding favored allowing illegal immigrants who have been in United States for more than five years to stay and apply for citizenship if they have a job, and pay a fine and back taxes. Twenty percent said they opposed such a measure.
A majority opposed a proposal to allow iIlegal immigrants who have been in the United States for two to five years to stay on a temporary basis, without a chance to apply for U.S. citizenship. Fifty-four percent opposed that measure, and 40 percent favored it.
A proposal to deport illegal immigrants in the United States for less than two years was favored by 64 percent and opposed by 31 percent.
For the poll, 1,012 adult Americans were interviewed by telephone between Friday and Sunday; it has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
A proposal being considered by the Senate would treat illegal immigrants differently based on the amount of time they have lived in the United States.
Earlier this month, senators left for a two-week recess after failing to agree on legislation to increase border security, create a guest-worker program and develop a legalization process.
Proponents of the latter called the system "earned citizenship," while opponents decried it as "amnesty."
With lawmakers returning to work Monday, President Bush reiterated his support for immigration legislation that would include a temporary guest-worker program. (Full story)
Bush called the proposal that bogged down in the Senate an "important compromise" and blamed the failure to pass it on "needless politics." That proposal was based on legislation proposed by Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Minority Leader Harry Reid said Monday, "The Senate can move forward on immigration if President Bush and the majority leader will stand up to those Republicans who are filibustering."
A Republican leadership aide said last week that Majority Leader Bill Frist will bring immigration legislation back to the Senate floor by Memorial Day. (Full story)
The issue presents a delicate balancing act for Bush. His guest-worker program has support in the business community, and he has courted Latino support. But he also must deal with an outspoken segment of his conservative base demanding tougher restrictions on illegal immigration.
Republicans have been divided over the worker program and the legalization process.
Bush said Monday that the best way to enforce border security "besides making sure it's modern and we've got manpower and equipment down there ... is to come up with a rational plan that recognizes people coming here to work, and lets them do so on a temporary basis."
The poll found opinions divided on a worker program that would allow people from other countries to stay in the United States for several months but require them to leave when that time was up, without a chance to apply for citizenship. That was favored by 47 percent and opposed by 45 percent.
Any immigration legislation the Senate passes would have to be reconciled with a plan passed by the House in December. The House version includes neither a guest-worker program nor a legalization process.
The House bill, which helped spark weeks of protests nationwide by supporters of illegal immigrants, included provisions to build 700 miles of fence along the border with Mexico and to make entering the country illegally a felony.
In the poll, Americans were split evenly over the fence proposal, with 47 percent favoring the idea and the same percentage opposing it.
A majority -- 56 percent -- opposed making illegal immigration a felony, while 39 percent favored it.
After Congress started its recess, the top Republicans in both the House and Senate indicated they would not support the felony provision. (Full story)
In the poll, 68 percent of those responding said they favored increasing penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants, while 27 percent were opposed.
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http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/042306/opinion_20060423050.shtml
Winders: Vision for New Georgia a tad cloudy
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Executive Editor more Winders columns |
Funny, you would think Josephine Tan might have an opinion here. But then again, maybe the Roswell doctor understands the governor's expectations better than most.
Tan, who chairs the state's 18-member Asian-American Commission for a New Georgia, was named to her post the same day Gov. Sonny Perdue created the shrinking-as-we-speak Latino Commission for a New Georgia.
As such, Tan advises the governor on the interests of the state's Asian population, a group which has grown by 187 percent (or 138,000 people) since 1990. That's a rate second only to Nevada.
So you would think a hot-button issue like the state's new immigration law might shake a public comment or two out of Tan and Co. Strangely, they've offered not a single word.
Of course, now that I think about it, why would they?I mean the state's wink-and-nod approach to immigration never targeted Asian Americans. Or any other group for that matter.
No, it wasn't Asians, Europeans or even Canadians who were welcomed by the thousands with open arms and small paychecks into the state's chicken plants, fields and janitorial jobs. Welcomed, that is, until the political costs got a little too high for an election year.
See, when they talk about "doing something about immigration" in this state, they're talking about "doing something about" our exploding Hispanic population.
That's the code, folks. Plain and simple, this has become a Latino witch hunt.
So while Josephine Tan stays buttoned up, it's nice to see others taking a more direct approach after Senate Bill 529 became law following Perdue's signature Monday. Since that day, six Latino Commission members - a full third of the group - have resigned.
At issue, Perdue's complete indifference to the committee he created, shown in the fact the governor never met with them to discuss the hottest issue of the session.
And I thought some of Gov. Sonny Perdue's best friends were Hispanic. Just look at what the governor said in 2003: "Our diversity is a source of strength for this state, both nationally and internationally. I look forward to working with each member of these two commissions and the communities they represent."
His own press release from 2003 defines the commission's role to include "policy development on multiple issues" and says it "will play an important advisory function."
But I guess that was just pillow talk, baby. Because Sonny just doesn't want to hear it.
The governor's office admitted as much last week, saying he didn't meet with the commission because he didn't meet with any groups on the bill. However, Perdue aide Julie Smith did send an e-mail inviting commission members to contact her with their opinions.
See, folks, they could have e-mailed the governor's aide. And everybody knows if you e-mail Julie Smith, then that's just as good as the governor hearing you out.
But Julie Smith wasn't good enough for everyone.
As Latino Commission member Alex Salgueiro resigned, he called the group "a sham" and "window dressing." Jacqueline Thomas Rosier resigned because the "commission clearly has no other reason to exist other than to be a line in your campaign literature."
We could go on, but let's just say each member echoed similar sentiments to Salgueiro and Rosier as they stepped down.
So what's a governor to do when his Latino team dares turn their backs on him right after he stabbed them in it? If you're Sonny Perdue, you do exactly what you expect from your hand-picked commissions: Nothing at all.
I guess some folks think the governor's vision for New Georgia centers around speaking only when spoken to. Seems like Josephine Tan gets it. I'm sure the governor wonders why nobody else does.
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http://www.ajc.com/tuesday/content/epaper/editions/tuesday/opinion_44d4c8a1e5aa31261062.html
READERS WRITE
National Security
Chaos will reign without rule of law
America is facing a threat from within that is more dangerous than all terrorists combined. This threat is created by our political leaders, who are acting like the rule of law is an obsolete concept.
Our invasion of Iraq and subsequent treatment of prisoners ignored international law and U.S. treaties. Government surveillance of citizens ignored constitutional rights. Now our government refuses to enforce existing immigration law while debating new policy.
For more than 200 years, the rule of law has protected Americans from violence by providing reasonable and peaceful procedures to address the most important, controversial and enduring issues of our history, including racism, church-state relationships, individual rights and limits on police powers. It is not an obsolete concept.
When the rule of law breaks down, extremists on opposite sides of major issues become violent and chaos reigns. This is the current situation in Iraq. Is America next?
BILL FOKES, Lawrenceville
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http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/US_Supreme_Court/Scotus_Undocumented_Workers.html?cxntnid=amn042506e
Ga. Town at Center of Immigrant Labor Case
Associated Press Writer
CALHOUN, Ga. — A few blocks down the main road from this small downtown in the north Georgia hills, the Matul family from Guatemala has opened a grocery selling fresh exotic fruits, canned juice from Mexico and international telephone calling cards.
Owner Brenda Matul, 29, counts on the influx of Hispanic immigrants to the community to seal the success of her 5-month-old Tienda la Guadalupana — and her life's journey from Central America to become a naturalized U.S. citizen with U.S.-born, bilingual children.
"One day we can grow more if immigrants keep coming to us for imports," Matul said about her clientele. "But now they're worried and afraid, afraid of going back, of poverty."
Immigrants account for nearly one out of every six of Calhoun's 13,000 residents. Like virtually everyone else in town, at some point, most have worked for the world's largest carpet makers, headquartered here and in nearby towns.
Now, one of those companies faces a lawsuit over the immigrant workers it hires, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case Wednesday. The litigation could change this community and set precedents for how the country deals with immigration.
One current and three former employees of Mohawk Industries Inc. have filed a class action lawsuit against the firm, alleging it knowingly hired hundreds of illegal immigrants to suppress legal workers' wages. The company categorically denies knowledge of any illegal workers on its payroll and says it provides all employees with competitive wages and health benefits.
The case raises the three pivotal questions in the immigration debate: Are immigrants, legal or not, coming to work in the U.S. because the economy needs them or because companies exploit cheap labor to the detriment of U.S.-born workers? Should the front-line controls on illegal immigration be the personnel offices of manufacturers? And will stricter checks on hiring documents for applicants who look or sound foreign discriminate against all Hispanics?
The Supreme Court will focus only on whether a company and its agents — recruiters, in this case — can be considered a racketeering enterprise under civil provisions of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows the plaintiffs to ask for triple damages.
Both sides agree, however, that the case is about U.S. citizens taking matters in their own hands because they feel that illegal immigration is out of control.
"This points out the need to have private enforcement. It gives private citizens some recourse to protect themselves," said Howard Foster, the employees' attorney and a noted immigration-control activist who has taken on large corporations across the country. His clients, through him, declined interview requests.
Research is mixed on immigrants' impact on U.S.-born workers. George Borjas of Harvard University has concluded that, between 1980 and 2000, the wages of U.S.-born men without a high school diploma have decreased by as much as 7.4 percent because of immigrant labor. But other economists say filling jobs that Americans tend to avoid spurs the economy to grow locally, reducing automation and outsourcing, and enriching local coffers through taxes and shopping.
"Ninety-plus percent of the time, wages are helped by the influx of documented and undocumented immigrants," said Dan Siciliano of Stanford University. "It's no fun for that 10 percent. But we shouldn't get rid of immigrants who help those nine out of 10 workers."
Keeping illegal immigrants out of company jobs should be easy, since the law requires employers to check a list of documents for all job applicants, and many workers without papers tend to pick up temporary jobs where they're paid cash. But corporations say it's nearly impossible to spot fake documents. Some immigration enforcement officials agree that, as a result, companies not considered "critical infrastructure" face a minimal risk of prosecution.
"The argument 'I tried my best' is usually successful unless you have a mole with a tape recording, 'Give me illegal aliens to hire,'" said Victor Cerda, former counsel for the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But now the government plans to crack down harder on employers who harbor and hire illegal immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday after a series of nationwide raids at a pallet manufacturer's plants. More than 1,100 people were arrested on administrative immigration charges.
Juan Morillo, Mohawk's attorney, said immigration officials haven't approached the company since the lawsuit was filed in January 2004. Mohawk also argues that going beyond routine document checks for applicants who look Hispanic would only open the company up to charges of discrimination.
"The company feels very strongly the desired effect is to make it more difficult to hire Hispanics," Morillo said about the lawsuit, adding that the company "will not do anything to try and change the demographics of its work force."
Immigrants and advocates fear, however, that companies will make such changes, especially in places like northwest Georgia where the Hispanic immigrant population is new. From 1990 to 2000, the town's Hispanic population jumped from 39 to 1,821, according to census figures. Most of those new residents immigrated from Mexico and Central America.
"The city is growing because of the Hispanics," said Armando Rodriguez as he helped customers at his butcher and deli shop near Matul's. "But they don't like us."
Rumors about crackdowns on illegal immigrants and the lawsuit before the Supreme Court are spreading fear and confusion, said America Gruner, a community health worker from Mexico who has lived in nearby Dalton for five years.
"A lot of people want to leave; some take for granted that many people are going to be deported," she said.
Still, immigrants like Rodriguez say they like the "very quiet village" because it's good for their children. This is where the 41-year-old Guatemalan, who first moved to California when he was 20 and eventually worked for Mohawk, realized his small entrepreneur dream.
"I dreamed of working, making money and going back," he said with a grin, sparkling pinatas hovering above his cash counter. "But now I like it here."
___
On the Net:
Mohawk Industries, Inc.: http://www.mohawkind.com
Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov
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http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/wooten/stories/042506.html
Expect racial lines to define state politics
Published on: 04/25/06
After this week's qualifying and November's elections, Georgia will be well on its way to having two political parties that divide along racial lines. Not good for either — or for Georgia.
Credit the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the drift of the national Democratic Party.
The Voting Rights Act, which most black and Republican politicians love, concentrates black Democrats in safe districts devoid of any pressure toward moderation. Most every black Democrat can be Cynthia McKinney and get re-elected; it's a tribute to their character and civic responsibility that they aren't like that.
Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland was the demarcating Democrat, the high-profile figure whose politics merged the state and national parties. Most successful Georgia Democrats in Washington —U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop of Albany and Jim Marshall of Macon — track local in the Sam Nunn tradition: Bishop on agriculture and defense and Marshall on Iraq. Howard Dean Democrats cannot win Georgia.
For the state party, this is the year of transition. Five years ago, the Georgia House had 105 Democrats, 74 Republicans and one independent. Today it's 103 Republicans, 76 Democrats and one independent.
After the July primary, blacks are certain to have the majority in the Democratic caucus. The question then becomes: What image, what voice?
The same is true of majority Republicans, of course. But laws passed by the majority — immigration and lawsuit reform, to cite two of the most contentious — speak for themselves. The majority is not defined by the sound bites of the angriest, loudest or quickest to the camera, as the minority party often is. The party out of power is far easier to stereotype, as Republicans were for years.
Statewide, blacks are likely to be a voting majority in July's primary. The gubernatorial candidate who gets the black vote wins the nomination. The test for the next few months is whether Mark Taylor and Cathy Cox can avoid taking primary positions that will get them defeated in November.
The drift of the two parties into racial identity is cause for concern. One problem, as we've seen with voter ID, is that partisan issues become racial.
It is a matter of considerable importance that the two parties reach out to the other race.
For Republicans, that means finding a way to connect with social conservatives and to articulate positions that draw fiscal and limited-government black conservatives. Republicans are gaining rapidly in the mountains, in metro Atlanta's northern arc and along the coast.
Blacks in the northern arc counties tend to have lifestyles and core values that would dispose them to identify with a party that emphasizes self-reliance and personal responsibility, low taxes and limited government. But it takes really courageous, pioneering blacks to identify publicly with a party that attracts fewer than one in 10 black voters.
While losing all but a few pockets of rural Georgia, Democrats are gaining ground in metro Atlanta, especially in east Newton, Rockdale, western Gwinnett, south Cobb, north Henry and east Douglas County, in addition to Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton.
The challenge, however, is to attract whites. Unless either Cox or Taylor wins the governor's race, Democrats after November will be without a high-profile politician of stature capable of shaping the party's message. The question, then, is which of the party's leaders gets to the microphone.
State Senate Democrats, who are likely to emerge from November's election with roughly the same number of seats, 22, have begun to find the coalition and voice that have potential to appeal more broadly.
A group of Democratic senators that includes Kasim Reed of Atlanta, Doug Stoner of Smyrna and Tim Golden of Valdosta showed some awareness of the need to redefine the party to broaden its appeal.
In the House, with smaller districts and a larger number of voices, the job is far more difficult. The current minority leader, state Rep. DuBose Porter of Dublin, has the right instincts, but nobody controls the caucus — or the microphone.
With retirements and the loss last week of two more prominent rural conservatives who switched parties — Richard Royal of Camilla and Butch Parrish of Swainsboro — a sizeable bloc of the Democrats' right-of-center representatives disappears after November.
For both parties, the challenge is to draw voters from the other race — and to do it without becoming the other party.
• Jim Wooten is the associate editorial page editor. His column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sunday.
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http://www.statesboroherald.net/showstory.php?$recordID=5973
The need for immigrant workers
MICHELLE BOAEN/staff
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JAN MOORE
jmoore@statesboroherald.net
The face of the low skilled workforce in Bulloch County is changing to reflect the national trend of hiring foreign born labor to perform lower paying jobs. Many local businesses, like their counterparts around the nation, say they depend on foreign born workers, mostly Mexican, to fill the majority of these jobs.
Together, legal and illegal alien workers, now make up almost 15 percent of the less skilled, less educated workforce in America today, according to Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.
"What is happening specifically in Georgia at the lower end of the labor market is an explosion in the percentage of foreign born workers within that sector," Camarota said. "High school or less educated native born Americans are dropping out of the labor force, and foreign born workers are becoming a much larger percentage."
"Just in the last five years that percentage has risen from about 7.1 percent to almost 15 percent," Camarota said. "That number takes into account legal and illegal foreign born workers."
Camarota said Georgia is one of the biggest growth markets for foreign born labor in the country.
"In 1990, it was estimated that there were approximately 19,748 legal/illegal Mexican immigrants alone in the state of Georgia," he said. "That number had risen to 196,011 in 2000. In the last five years, that number has continued to dramatically increase. The growth of this labor segment is exploding in Georgia."
In an attempt to curb the tide of illegal aliens working in Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue recently signed the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, which gives the state some of the toughest immigration laws in the country. On the business sector side, the new law will levy stiff penalties on companies that hire undocumented workers.
While that law is aimed at denying work opportunities for anyone seeking employment illegally, there are plenty of legal aliens in Georgia seeking and finding lower skilled jobs.
Jamie Brannen, a partner in Gerrald's Sweet Vidalia Onions located on Highway 24 in Clito, said his operation is heavily dependent on legal foreign born labor. He said Gerrald's employs more than 300 during the springtime and early summer when the onions are harvested, packaged and shipped.
"Most of our laborers are migrant workers that are in Florida before coming here," he said. "When we are done, they will go on to North Carolina or South Carolina."
Brannen said he finds most of his laborers through "crew" chiefs and the local Department of Labor helps his company "document" them before they go to work.
"The Department of Labor helps us check each worker's identification to assure they can legally work here, and we set up files on each employee," he said. "We then have to show the labor department how each individual has been paid to insure that no worker makes less than minimum wage."
"No doubt it is very hard work, but the young guys out here average between $10 and $12 per hour clipping onions," Brannen said. "We would close without migrant labor."
Brannen is not the only business owner dependent on foreign born labor. Mark Driggers, owner of Driggers Concrete Construction, a Swainsboro-based company that provides construction services in Bulloch County, said Mexican born laborers make up more than half of his crew.
"Basically, when I started my own business five years ago, they showed up," Driggers said. "They have all of the appropriate paperwork and are ready to go. The original people that came to work for me started to bring their friends to work assuring me they were good, responsible workers and they have been."
"Truthfully, I don't think I could fill these jobs without them," Driggers said. "We have been looking for lead men, which are semi-skilled, English speaking positions, and we haven't been able to fill them for months. I can't get people to come to work to fill those jobs."
Karen Lewis, branch manager of Snelling Personnel Services in Statesboro, said it is a very tight labor market in Bulloch County and finding employees to fill lower skilled labor intensive positions is very difficult.
"We have to go to surrounding towns and counties and recruit people to fill job positions here in this count," Lewis said. "We employ a number of legal aliens. In some cases they fill an important gap in that they are willing to do jobs that other people just aren't willing to do."
"We are able to recruit these workers in a number of ways including the local Spanish newspaper," she said. "As a workforce, I have found them incredibly dependable, very hard-working, dedicated and grateful to have gainful employment." "We don't focus on that segment of the workforce. We are happy to take anyone with the proper paperwork and background that is willing to work. We have more requests for employees than we can fill. The demand is far outweighing the supply."
Lewis said the public needs to understand these unskilled jobs pay more than minimum wage, a claim echoed by both Brannen and Driggers.
"Unskilled laborers that come to work for us start at $8 an hour, that's starting out," Lewis said. "Within a relatively short period of time, if they remain on the job, their pay is raised. We feel strongly that people should begin with a decent wage. It is only right."
Glenn Collins, Georgia Labor Department assistant commissioner for employment services, said the department helps legal aliens that register with them find jobs through their working relationships with local employers.
"Anyone who is eligible to work in the United States can take advantage of the full range of services available through the workforce system including job search and placement assistance, skills assessment, workshops and retraining opportunities," Collins said.
Collins said that some Georgia farmers seek to have jobs filled through the H2-A guest worker program provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. Passed in 1952 by Congress as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the H2-A program allows farmers to recruit foreign labor after efforts to fill low skilled farm labor positions domestically have been exhausted.
"We currently have two growers in the five-county area of Bulloch, Candler, Evans, Screven and Jenkins requesting to bring alien field workers into the country through the H2-A Program," Collins said. "The department has been working with them in an effort to find U.S. and/or legal alien workers to fill their openings. However, if these growers are not able to fill these positions domestically, they will be allowed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to bring foreign labor in."
Camarota said a disconcerting transformation is happening in the lower skilled end of the labor force across the country.
"In 2000, 70.9 percent of native born Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 held a job," he said. "By 2005, that number had decreased to 65.8 percent. It is our opinion that this decrease is evidence that immigration is having an adverse effect."
"I hear time and time again that the reason employers hire foreign born workers is that no one else is willing to do these jobs," Camarota said. "At the pay scale being offered combined with the working conditions, they are probably right. If pay were increased and working conditions improved, you would see native born Americans come back into the workforce and do these jobs."
Brannen is not so sure.
"I honestly don't think it matters within reason how much we pay," Brannen said. "This is very hard, difficult labor. I don't think people born here are prepared to do that work anymore. Mentally or physically I just don't think they are able. It's just the way it is."
Section/Page: Local/State News
Publication Date: Monday, April 24, 2006
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Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
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