"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 5/2/'06 11:30PM
"Georgia Immigration" - (Google) News Sweep - 5/2/'06 11:30PM
5/2/'06 - The following article(s) were found in the media. Several stories are provided ... with links to the original sources ... for your convenience:
- Organizers of Georgia's boycott call it a success, plan next immigrant move
- No increase in city school tax rate
- Why they marched: The dream of better job, college degree, chance to see a baby son
- Senate retries immigration reform
- Hispanics hold rally at Capitol
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http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/14482582.htm
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/14482582.htm
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=74758
Organizers of Georgia's boycott call it a success, plan next immigrant move
GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO
Associated Press
ATLANTA - Galvanized by a 50,000-strong march in April and a statewide economic boycott that they called a success, immigrant organizers in Georgia are turning their attention to the next big event.
The organizers of Monday's economic boycott touted the deserted Wal-Marts, shuttered Hispanic businesses and unopened wallets Tuesday, calling it their second success after the April 10 march that took by surprise a state where the immigrant community was relatively new and silent.
"The response wasn't only in Atlanta but from north to south, from east to west, people maintained their promise not to buy," said Julian Herrera of the Alianza 17 de Marzo, a group of Hispanic activists. "Now we're reserving for ourselves our strongest hit."
On May 19, the group plans to gather at least 100,000 immigrants and their supporters in a single spot in Atlanta, or to bus them up to Washington, to convince Georgia's congressional delegation to oppose any federal reform that doesn't include a way for illegal immigrants to stay, work and eventually become citizens.
Only 4,500 supporters showed up at a rally in Atlanta Monday and few hundred more showed up in other cities across the state, but those rallies weren't organized by the Alianza or the Spanish-language media that had been behind the April march.
Still, Jerry Gonzalez of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, which organized a Monday march in Athens attended by 1,500 people, said having multiple events didn't detract from the impact of immigrant activists.
"Not having one voice isn't a weakness; rather we have a lot to pull from," Gonzalez said.
The common goal is to spur Hispanic and other citizens to vote out of office candidates who promote stricter immigration controls.
Herrera shrugged away concerns that immigrant activism might alienate U.S.-born observers.
"They can tell us what other option they've left us so that Congress can hear that we don't agree," he said. "They're forcing us to do this."
Although Gonzalez's and Herrera's groups had recommended that immigrant workers stay home Monday only if they had permission and their job wouldn't be jeopardized, several hundred workers across the state were facing consequences for not showing up.
At a Gold Kist poultry plant in Ellijay in north Georgia, more than half the workers didn't go to work Monday, said Karla Harvill, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based company.
Harvill said those workers wouldn't be excused, and would be subject to the routine discipline for absenteeism. She declined to say what consequences the workers would face. Still, the company didn't suffer, she said.
"We sort of expected it, so we handled it and met our customers' needs," Harvill said.
Consequences were worse for Mike Collins, who grows Vidalia onions in southeastern Georgia, and for his 50 packing shed workers who didn't show up Monday.
Losing a day in peak harvest season could have cost him as much as $100,000, Collins said, and he will replace all the no-shows with another crew - also immigrant.
"If only our government would look at what's going on ... there's enough American people that could do the work and they're just collecting welfare," he said from his farm in Collins. "Without the immigrants I can't do what I do. Things are really going crazy."
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http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=103493
Updated Tuesday, May 2 at 8:52 PM
No increase in city school tax rateBy Judd Hickinbotham
GAINESVILLE - The Gainesville Board of Education will not be increasing the tax rate to fund the next school budget, according the superintendant.
Superintendant Steve Ballowe said the decision was made during Monday's board work session.
"Our board has asked us to protect the investments of our community; at the same time, to wisely use the community's resources, so we're not recommending any tax increase at all," said Ballowe.
He also said it was decided that kids missing school for immigration boycotts are only problems if they walk off campus after arriving at school.
The meeting also announced new principals for two of the city's middle schools. Ballowe announced the hiring of Audrey Simmons, for the humanities academy, and Lisa Smith, for the classical academy. The Board continues to look for a third principal.
It was also decided that the old Gainesville High School gym will continue to be used as a physical education facility, according to Ballowe.
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http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/14483343.htm
Why they marched: The dream of better job, college degree, chance to see a baby son
SHARON COHEN
Associated Press
They each had a story to tell, a reason for joining the march.
A young worker in the California vineyards longed to see his wife and infant son. A nursing home aide in Colorado feared for her husband. Teenage twins in Florida dreamed of college - in America, the place they call home.
They came out of the shadows on Monday, more than 1 million strong, from Miami to Seattle, in small groups and giant rallies, immigrants legal and illegal and their supporters, calling for changes in the law.
Here are some of the stories:
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"Mario Garcia, 43, illegal." The sturdy Guatemalan immigrant described himself with a laugh.
In the eerily empty parking lot outside Atlanta's best-known Hispanic mall, Garcia gathered with two dozen immigrants for a rally at the Georgia Capitol. He pointed proudly to the fact that the mall was deserted for a day, salsa music blasting through the empty corridors, metal grates shuttering stores.
"I always tell people I come from Mars, because I'm called an alien," he said in Spanish. Then he turned serious: "But we don't come from another planet."
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Wilber Prada marched but he wasn't comfortable being in the streets.
"Every day I'm afraid to leave my house because immigration agents could come and get me," said Prada, a 45-year-old illegal immigrant from Peru who has lived in the shadows for 16 years.
His wife, Gladys, urged him to march with hundreds of thousands of others in Los Angeles and pulled their 10-year-old son out of class to join them.
Gladys, who wore a white T-shirt, blue jeans and bright red shoes, waved a large American flag and shouted, "Si se puede" or "Yes, it can be done."
Her journey to America was a treacherous one: She crossed rivers and mountains, day and night, with their older son, then 7, as they trekked from Peru to Nicaragua to Mexico and finally across the border. Wilber had come first, working and saving for four years to pay a smuggler to bring them here.
In Peru, Prada was a biologist, his wife a grade-school teacher. They had college degrees, but felt they had no future. Now Prada is a gardener. His wife cleans houses. They've built up steady clients and together earn about $40,000 a year.
Prada dreams of getting papers that would let him, his wife and their 19-year-old son, a UCLA freshman, live in the open. They proudly told other marchers why he wasn't there: He had an important exam at school.
"He's going to be an engineer," Gladys said. "For us, this is like touching the clouds with our hands."
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Sai Jun Liang stood out in the sea of mostly Hispanic faces.
While many Asian immigrants have stayed away from immigration protests, the 54-year-old Chinese native was out front at the rally in downtown San Francisco.
"The Chinese should not think this is not their issue," she said in Mandarin. "Chinese and Mexican workers should stand together. Chinese and Mexican workers are doing the hardest, lowest-paid jobs in this country."
Liang emigrated legally from southern China and moved to San Francisco three years ago to marry a naturalized U.S. citizen.
In China, she managed a construction company. Now, she works for a state-sponsored program, caring for elderly Chinese immigrants.
Though Liang has a green card and hopes to soon become a U.S. citizen, she wants the federal government to provide a way for undocumented immigrants to gain legal status.
"This is work most Americans aren't willing to do," she said. "Without them, society would be in disarray."
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For Steve Penhollow, the immigration rally was another day on the job - without many of his workers.
The owner of Penhollow Custom Homes had to make do with a skeleton crew as he rushed to finish a mansion in suburban Dallas. About 20 Hispanic workers gave advance notice and others just didn't show up Monday as part of the boycott.
"I support their struggle," Penhollow said. "I just wish it didn't have to happen today."
About a dozen men, roughly half of them Hispanic, did come to work. Some said they had changed their mind because they did not want to put Penhollow and others in a bind.
One was Francisco Cardenas, 46, a Mexican immigrant who is a legal resident. He sends $300 a week home to his family in Mexico. He says a day of work pays at least $100.
"Above all, it was a need to be responsible about my work," he said in Spanish. "But I support today."
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It was moving day for Juvenal Corona and Cristhian Villa.
Instead of rising early to build fences and bus tables, the 23-year-old Mexican couple woke up bleary-eyed from a late night of packing. After months of steady work, they and five others traded the two-bedroom apartment they've shared for a three-bedroom in the same modest complex.
Corona makes $11 an hour building fences at homes in the San Diego area. He dreams of starting his own company but knows he can't get a business license. He pays taxes but accepts he'll never collect Social Security.
Corona and his wife, who met four years ago at an adult school, have a 2-year-old-daughter, Jazmin.
On Monday, they packed ham sandwiches and headed to a march with Jazmin's pink stroller in tow. About 5,000 people gathered within sight of a steel-and-mesh fence that separates San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico.
When they returned home, Corona called work and was told to stay home Tuesday - a one-day punishment for missing Monday, along with half of his 12-man crew.
"It's another $100 to make a point," he said. "I accept their decision."
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Maria and Laura De Anda have lived in Florida since they were 2.
But the 14-year-old twins are Mexican citizens, just like their parents, who they say entered the country illegally years ago.
"I can't imagine living in Mexico," Laura said at a rally in Sarasota, Fla. "This is home. It's not even my new home."
"We want to live here legally. We want to do things right," Maria said. "But they won't give us a chance."
Both girls say they got their parents' permission to miss school so they could join the march.
"I want to go to college," said Maria, an honors student. "We've gotten really good grades, but they don't want us to go to college. My dad has been here for 15 years, building houses and doing drywall, strengthening the economy. I think that should mean something."
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Everyone in Fermin Rivera's family - his wife and his four children - has obtained legal residency or was born in America. Everyone except him.
"I am the head of my family. If I don't get my legal residency, my children will be the ones who suffer," he said as he pushed his 4-year-old son, Fermin Jr., in a stroller, walking with tens of thousands of other immigrants in Houston.
While many other parents had their school-age sons and daughters at their sides, Rivera, 36, felt his three older children - 7, 11 and 12 - should remain in class.
"We wanted them to stay in school today so they don't lose out on anything," said Rivera, a plumber and construction supervisor who was joined by his wife, Rosa. "I want them to have a better future."
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In the vineyards of California's Central Valley, Ramon Cervantes' spring-loaded shears rested in a leather holster.
On Monday, the 23-year-old farmworker and three relatives boycotted work.
Cervantes wasn't worried even though the foreman at Giumarra Vineyards, which grows 10,000 acres of grapes, took down the names of those who planned to stay home.
"What are they going to do?" he asked. "Fire everyone? There are too many of us."
All 18 members of his team took off work to attend a rally - a day off from a backbreaking toil of tending table grapes in stifling heat.
"I'd like to see who'd take my job," he said in Spanish, sitting on the arm of a fold-out couch he shares with a male cousin at night.
The apartment's cluttered walls tell the story of the family's journey here from Aguacaliente, a village in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Pictures of grandparents and babies not seen in years share space with brightly colored saints. Reproductions of the sea creatures they fished for back home hang alongside bunches of plastic grapes.
For this family, legalization would mean having a driver's license and a car, instead of paying neighbors $20 for a ride to the supermarket.
Most of all, for Cervantes, it would mean reuniting with his 2-year-old son, whom he hasn't seen since the chubby-cheeked boy was 3 months old.
"I can't ask my wife to cross," he said. "It's too dangerous. But it's difficult, not seeing him. Children change so much when they're small."
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He works in an Asian restaurant as a busboy, a job that doesn't require much English. But Jaime, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, says it would be crazy not to learn the language.
"It won't only open more doors, you'll be exposed to more cultures," says Jaime, who did not want his last name used for fear of deportation.
Jaime says he asked his boss' permission to take the day off to join a rally that ended near the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. He says his boss understood.
Jaime, who came to America six years ago by crossing the border into Arizona and walking two days in the desert, sends about $1,000 every two months to support his family back in Mexico.
"Even companies go where the money is," he says. "So why can't people go to where the money is and where the better life is?"
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Instead of driving around with a cell phone stuck to his ear, construction company owner Angel Elicerio was at an immigration rally in Orlando, Fla., marching shoulder-to-shoulder with his workers.
He gave his 43 employees a paid day off - a decision costing him about $7,000 in labor. It also angered a client, but he told them he had to do it - even though he and his workers are legal residents.
The 24-year-old Mexican-American says he had promised his grandmother, who died last week, he would do everything to help their people.
So there he was, one of 20,000 people on a three-mile march, envisioning what legalization would mean.
"Everybody can pay taxes, everybody can have a driver's license, everybody can have insurance," he said, amid intermittent cheers, chants and air horn blasts.
Later, he and his family welcomed workers over for a barbecue.
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Corina Payan left her 6-year-old at his grandma's house and gave up a day's pay at her nursing home job in suburban Denver to make her point.
"We're here to make a better life...," she said. "They treat us like criminals and we're not."
Talk of building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and legislation that could make millions of illegal immigrants felons makes her nervous.
So Payan, 29, and two-coworkers donned white shirts and headed toward the Colorado Capitol.
Any changes in federal legislation won't affect her because she became a citizen after coming illegally from Mexico more than 20 years ago. Her son was born in the United States. But she worries about those lacking legal status - including her husband.
On Monday, Payan had support at work.
Staffers from other departments at the nursing home pitched in - and even wore white as a sign of support, said administrator Tim Heronimus.
"What we're doing is saying, 'This is your society and at one point in history, everyone has made a stand,'" he said. "Our workers are working hard for us."
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Painting foreman William Hopkins arrived at work to find a ghost town.
Most of the Hispanic workers who put up drywall and do landscaping for a new state office building in Las Vegas were missing. "Normally there's about 15 to 20 people doing this," he said. "I only saw three."
Wade Pope, vice president of Roche Constructors Inc., a Colo.-based general contractor that runs Hopkins' job site, said up to 40 percent of workers on seven sites in Las Vegas were out Monday.
"I think everybody ought to be concerned," he said. "We do need a comprehensive immigration plan which includes securing the borders and a comprehensive guest worker program as well."
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Associated Press writers Juliana Barbassa in Fresno, Calif., Terence Chea in San Francisco, Phil Davis in Sarasota, Fla., Giovanna Dell'Orto in Atlanta, Julia Glick In Dallas, Juan A. Lozano in Houston, Ryan Nakashima in Las Vegas, Kim Nguyen in Denver, Peter Prengaman in Los Angeles, Travis Reed in Orlando, Fla., Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Deborah Yao in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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Last Updated: Tuesday, 2 May 2006, 19:44 GMT 20:44 UK   |
| Senate retries immigration reform | |||
Bill Frist was speaking after huge demonstrations on Monday illustrated immigrants' demands for recognition. Congress is caught between competing bills that would either criminalise or legitimise illegal immigrants. But Mr Frist said his attempts at reconciliation would focus on "border security first and foremost". He said any reform should start "by tightening our borders". But Mr Frist, leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, acknowledged that legislation also had to address the estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants in the US. "We don't know who they are. They're in the shadows and we need to devise a plan to bring them out of the shadows, short of amnesty, but treats them in a fair and compassionate way," he said on CBS television. Spending boycott More than a million immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, took part in a day of nationwide action on Monday to protest against any moves to outlaw them. Mass rallies were staged across the US as immigrants boycotted work or school and avoided spending money as a way of showing their worth to the economy. The protests were aimed at persuading Congress to abandon the tough measures in a bill passed last year by the US House of Representatives that includes provisions to criminalise illegal immigrants and bolster border security. Meanwhile a bipartisan Senate bill, currently stalled, would provide illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship and a guest-worker programme long favoured by President George W Bush. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president was not "a fan of boycotts" and was keen to see the new immigration laws approved. | |||
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http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=1&url_article_id=14559&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2
Hispanics hold rally at Capitol
05/02/2006
By Dave Williams
Staff Writer
dave.williams@gwinnettdailypost.com
ATLANTA — Several thousand Hispanic immigrants rallied outside the state Capitol on Monday to protest a crackdown on illegal immigration adopted by Georgia lawmakers in March and oppose similar measures pending in Congress.
The estimated 4,500 demonstrators heard speeches in their native Spanish, listened to music by Spanish- and English-speaking artists and chanted slogans, including "Aqui estamos, y no los vamos!'' which in English means: "We are here, and we're not leaving!''
Many wore white T-shirts containing various political slogans and carried signs with sharply worded messages.
One read "Don't Vote for Sonny Perdue,'' an indication of dissatisfaction with the Republican governor who signed the immigration bill two weeks ago. Another asked "Mark Taylor, R You Our Friend?'' in a not-so-subtle appeal to the lieutenant governor seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Perdue this fall.
Monday's demonstration in Atlanta and dozens of other cities across the country was timed to coincide with a May Day call by Latino activists for a nationwide boycott of work, school and shopping to show their importance to the American economy.
The protest was a follow up to a much larger demonstration and march three weeks ago that drew a crowd of 50,000 to a shopping plaza in Doraville with many Hispanic-owned businesses.
Many Latino advocacy groups, including the organizers of the April 10 march, had warned immigrants in Georgia not to risk missing work or school to attend Monday's rally.
Roberto Aguilar, an Atlanta construction worker from Mexico City, said he was fired after he marched last month. But he still decided to go to the Capitol on Monday.
"If we don't come out, they're going to paint us as criminals,'' said Aguilar, 35. "We've only come here to earn money with the sweat of our brow.''
Luis Roblas, general manager of La Cazuela Mexican restaurant in Lawrenceville, said the business closed for a similar immigration rally a few weeks ago but not this time.
The eight-restaurant chain, which has about 300 workers in metro Atlanta, recently held an employee meeting to find out what they wanted to do.
"They decided they couldn't afford to miss out on the pay just because someone else wanted this day off," said Roblas, a 34-year-old Mexican immigrant.
Several Gwinnett homebuilders, which depend heavily on Hispanic workers, said Monday's protests didn't interrupt construction. That outcome was a relief to people like Chris White, a human resources director with Duluth-based Bowen Family Homes.
White was nervous about the potential effects of a Hispanic worker boycott, but even with many roofers and framers taking the day off he said the company barely skipped a beat.
"We're not behind," he said. "If they knew they were going to miss today, they worked extra this past weekend or plan to work later than normal the rest of this week. They didn't want to let us down."
The Georgia law, which cleared the General Assembly mostly with Republican votes, requires adults seeking many taxpayer-funded services to prove that they are either U.S. citizens or in the country legally.
Education, immunization and emergency health care are exempt because courts have ruled that they must be provided regardless of citizenship status.
The law also goes after those who hire illegal immigrants by requiring businesses seeking government contracts to verify the immigration status of their employees. Companies doing business in the private sector will be discouraged from hiring illegals through tax penalties.
At the federal level, the U.S. House passed legislation in December that leans heavily toward enforcement, beefing up border patrols and calling for the construction of hundreds of miles of walls along large stretches of the U.S.-Mexican border. The House measure also makes it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally.
The Senate is considering a more lenient approach that includes a "guest-worker'' component allowing illegal immigrants to remain here temporarily to work. Some senators support providing those illegal workers with a pathway to become citizens, while others say they should return to their native countries and apply for legal entry.
While there were a few Mexican flags in evidence at Monday's rally, most of the flag-waving demonstrators had American flags large and small.
The large number of Mexican flags present at earlier protests drew complaints that those waving them were too tied to their native land and unwilling to assimilate into American culture.
Several demonstrators near the front of the crowd on Monday held aloft a U.S. flag tied to two Mexican flags, one on either side.
A small group of counter-demonstrators was set up a half block from the rally behind one of numerous barricades police had erected around the Capitol. Three of the four blocks immediately surrounding the building were closed to traffic.
— The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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Erik Voss
erik@ICAtlanta.org
404-457-5901 Direct
They are people who are working, who share the values that other Americans share... They're farm workers who are feeding the nation 
Streets around state Capitol to close at 10:30
