Advocates Push for Immigration Reform

Rallies titled "The Campaign to Reform Immigration for America" kicked off in more than 30 dozen cities across the country on Monday.

The group is made up of members of the faith, business and labor communities.

Its aim is to secure the federal votes needed so that millions of undocumented workers get to live inside the law.

State representative Pete Marin of Gwinnett County says granting some type of limited amnesty to undocumented workers means millions can live in the United States without fear of reprisals.

"People are afraid of getting out of their homes. People are afraid of engaging, of volunterism. People are afraid of going to the doctor, of going to the hospital. People are in fear. It is a sad story but I see families being split apart because of this, some of the racial laws that we're having."

Gina Perez is a third year accounting major at Georgia State University. She's got friends and family who are afraid to travel through some parts of the state.

"You know how lately there's been a lot of checkpoints on the road? There's this thing, like the prohibited counties. Cobb, Hall and Whitefield or Gwinnett. You do not go to those counties ‘cause you know if you go those counties and they check you, it's bad. How is it fair the regular police can act as ICE agents. It baffles my mind."

Immigration advocates say previous attempts to reform federal immigration laws under Presidents Regan and Clinton have failed and left undocumented workers with few, if any, constitutional protections.

Shuya Ohno is the national spokesman for the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America.

He describes immigration reform as a political hot potato, which no one wants to touch, until it’s politically advantageous to do so.

"I think a lot of people used it for kind of heated rhetoric more than policy solutions. That's why it became such a hot topic on talk radio and cable TV. Cause it was against the back drop of electoral politics."

It's estimated that five-percent of America's workforce are undocumented. That comes out to about 10 to 12 million people. Advocates say, those workers should be given a chance to work for equal pay, to pay back taxes, even a fine if that's required.

However, those who oppose amnesty of any kind for the undocumented -- including DeKalb County resident Joe Patricia Aaronstein -- say those workers should 'go home, get in line and wait their turn.'

"I'm for immigration that's legal. I've done it. I've lived in other countries. And, I did it the legal way. They should do it legally. They should apply for citizenship. There's a way to enter legally."

The Campaign for Immigration Reform for America hopes to persuade U-S legislators to create an independent commission, one which assesses nationwide labor shortages, including in agriculture.

The Obama administration has signaled that it wants to begin a discussion on comprehensive immigration reform before the end of the year.

Coalition forms for immigration reform

Some of Georgia's biggest industries have formed a coalition to urge the U.S. Senate to pass its immigration reform bill.

Georgia Employers for Immigration Reform is bankrolling print and radio ads like this one: "Many people think the immigration bill is an effort by business owners to get cheap labor. The fact is, business owners are looking for any labor, period."

Coalition Chair Wayne Lord who works for poultry processor Pilgrim's Pride said, "All of the companies and associations of companies, whether it be nursery, or carpet, or poultry, or peach growers, we know we're not able to find the workers. We have openings everywhere."

Some anti-immigration bloggers are calling for a boycott of the companies because they hire immigrant workers.

Polls show most Georgians oppose the immigration bill.

Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss helped craft the legislation, but they won't say whether they'll vote for it when it comes to the full Senate.

Suburban Thoroughfare Symbolizes Mixed Signals for Immigrants

Odilio Perez aches for a life beyond Buford Highway, a six-lane stretch of strip malls and ethnic diversity that cuts through three counties in Georgia.

The Guatemalan man settled along the artery leading out of Atlanta more than a decade ago, answering the call of local officials who used the springboard of the 1996 Summer Olympics to make immigrants a centerpiece of the community's rebirth. Vacant car lots and whitewashed stores gave way to affordable apartments, an eclectic mix of shops and towering business signs that are a study in polyglot.

"I've lived and worked here for 10 years without a problem," Mr. Perez, 33, said recently in the English he has learned since entering the country illegally. "I'd love to be a citizen, if I had a chance. But I went to a lawyer but he told me there's just no way."

Mr. Perez is part of a massive movement of immigrants who have bypassed traditional destinations in favor of the South.

Perhaps no place captures the transformation as vividly as Buford Highway.

People on both sides of the immigration debate say the highway is unique in its array of groups, and even more significant as an 8-mile example of the conflicting signals immigrants receive about whether they're wanted.

The highway was born when the Olympics peppered the Atlanta area with construction jobs, fueling a 300 percent increase in the Hispanic population in Georgia.

Officials in the working-class suburb of Chamblee saw opportunity and tailored their municipal codes to harness the convergence of newcomers.

The industrial businesses that were the highway's main employers had shut down in the 1980s and early 1990s. As the Games approached, Asian merchants attracted by inexpensive leases and a steady traffic conduit established restaurants and shops along the highway.

Latino workers added to the dynamic. They lived in dilapidated apartments along the road. A few squatted in the woods.

Tension surfaced at City Hall meetings. Longtime residents didn't want empty lots, but they didn't want foreign encampments either.

In response, Chamblee hired its first city manager, Kathy Brannon.

She cracked down on flophouse landlords and strictly enforced loitering rules. Then the city enacted sweeping zoning that permitted retail and new apartments in the same area.

By the end of the 1990s, Chamblee had established a zone dubbed the "International Village," home to nearly 1,000 people, mostly immigrants.

Ms. Brannon, who is to retire this year, has left her successor with an outline for the next vision of Buford Highway: more green space and fewer strip malls, all meant to make the area not just a destination for immigrants but for Atlantans hungry for diversity.

Since the year Ms. Brannon established the International Village, nationwide workplace arrests on immigration violations have increased fivefold, and deportations of suspected illegal immigrants have doubled, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

In 2006, law enforcement agencies in the Southeast enlisted in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement partnership that allows local officers to interview and fingerprint foreign-born people they detain.

The stepped-up enforcement has contributed to a decade-long backlog in legal residency applications and, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a wait list of about 1 million for citizenship.

Nikki Nguyen, 54, a Vietnam war refugee who petitioned for years to enter the U.S., filed to sponsor her sister to join her in the U.S. 12 years ago. The case is still pending.

Construction has dried up, and Buford Highway sometimes looks like it did in the old days.

But few immigrant workers plan to leave. With families here, a network of employers and several years invested in Chamblee's immigrant vision, their fortunes are aligned with the highway's.

"This country says it doesn't want us, but when there's a job to be done, it needs us," said Mr. Perez. "We see the two faces of this country up close, and it's sometimes hard to know which is the real one."

(AP)

Gwinnett county votes for tougher immigration policy

The Gwinnett County Commission Tuesday night voted to require companies seeking county contracts to verify that their employees are legal U-S residents. Critics had said that the new policy would be unconstitutional and usurp the regulation of immigration by the federal government. However, County commissioner Lorraine Green says the plan is a response to the federal government's inaction on immigration.

"The federal government seems to think that immigration is about picking onions in Vidalia...it's not. It's about what the illegal immigrants are doing to our communities, and that's what this is really all about. We felt this was an opportunity for us to get some compliance but yet do it in a way that wouldn't automatically generate a huge lawsuit".

The county board also voted to have auditors on occasion inspect records of companies hired to do contract work. Gwinnett’s local government contracts work from private firms, providing services for the county such as construction and food and medical care for jail inmates.

Local Sheriff Department Allowed to Enforce Federal Immigration Laws

The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department has become the fifth agency in Georgia to be accepted into a federal program that allows local and state officials to enforce federal immigration laws.

The Gwinnett Sheriff's Department is one of 11 new law enforcement agencies nationwide whose acceptance into the Homeland Security Department program was announced Friday.

The acceptance of Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway's application was hailed as a victory by anti-illegal immigration groups but decried by civil liberties and human rights groups.

The 11 new participants are the first to sign a new, standardized agreement since the program was overhauled following an investigation earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office.

(Associated Press)

President speaks on immigration in Brunswick

President George Bush was in coastal Georgia Tuesday to push for an immigration bill that many in his own party are divided on. The President spoke in Brunswick at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which trains border patrol and immigration agents, among other federal officers. Bush directly addressed his G-O-P critics, saying the bill currently before Congress is tough on illegal immigrants--requiring fines, back taxes and other provisions before they gain legal status.

"This is not an amnesty bill" Bush said. "If you want to scare the American people, what you say is, the bill's an amnesty bill. That's empty political rhetoric trying to frighten our fellow citizens".

Bush noted Georgia agriculture as one aspect of the economy which depends on a steady supply of immigrant workers. He said sending 12-million illegal immigrants back home is not an option.

Concerning the wildfires in southern Georgia and northern Florida, Bush pledged federal aid to help battle the blazes. So far, it has cost over 45-million dollars to fight the fires. The blazes have charred over 580-thousand acres in Georgia and Florida since starting in mid-April.

Rudy Giuliani visits Savannah

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani visited Savannah today in a campaign appearance that focused largely on issues which unite his party. Giuliani spent most of his hour-long appearance talking about tax cuts and the size of government, saying his Democratic rivals would increases taxes and grow government beaurocracy.

Audience members did ask the candidate, however, about issues challenging the G-O-P, including stem cell research and immigration. Giuliani said President Bush could have won the immigration debate if he had focused on stopping illegal immigration first.

"He should build a fence, build a technological fence, add the extra border patrol, start showing that we can assert a reasonable degree of sovereignty over our borders," he said.

Guiliani did not address the war in Iraq or port security concerns during the Town Hall style meeting. He is, however, the first 2008 presidential candidate to visit Savannah.

Commissioner: Georgia should prepare for labor shortages

Georgia can expect immigration reform to bring labor shortages, according the State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. He spoke at a conference Wednesday on Georgia's workforce.

Thurmond calls immigration reform inevitable and says business owners should expect a "severe shortage" of cheap, undocumented workers, especially from Mexico.

The Commissioner doesn't have specific figures. But he says industries like agriculture, construction and hospitality could be hurt if Congress and a new President tighten the tap on immigration.

"Where will the workers come from?" Thurmond asks. "The primary focus of this conference will be to help employers and business leaders see how you can access what I refer to as marginalized workers."

For example, people with criminal records have had some success taking jobs commonly filled by foreign workers, such as in poultry plants and restaurants. The Georgia Workforce Conference continues through Friday.

Georgia sits out nationwide immigration protests

Georgia immigrant rights groups seem to be sitting out today’s nationwide marches and protests for immigrant rights. No local group has announced a boycott or march today. It’s a change from last year’s nationwide immigration protests, many stores and malls in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in Atlanta closed or were deserted. Today’s nationwide campaign is in an effort to spur Congress to act on immigration reform before the looming presidential primaries take over the political landscape. Some of the organizers from last year say Georgia’s immigrant community is quieter now because immigrants are afraid of a tough new state law targeting illegal immigrants.

Advocates urge undocumented immigrants: prepare a ‘go-bag’

Fear rippled through a group of Latino parents in suburban Chamblee, near Atlanta when a friend was deported to Mexico and temporarily separated from her two young U.S.-born children. The kids weren't able to immediately join her because she and her husband hadn't gotten passports for them.

More than nine months later, anxiety about being taken from their children is still palpable among the members of the support group for Spanish-speaking parents — most of them undocumented — of children with Down syndrome.

To guard against such separations — a widely decried effect of recent large-scale workplace raids — social workers and activists are urging undocumented immigrants to put together emergency kits similar to the kind emergency officials encourage people to keep in case of fire or natural disaster.

"Information is power," said Sonia Parras Konrad, a lawyer in Iowa who helped undocumented immigrants in the wake of a raid at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant in May. "If they know their rights and are prepared, they can be more in control of their lives and what happens to them."

The immigrants' kits include passports for U.S.-born children, contact info for an attorney, information on their legal rights and other material that can keep families together or help relatives retrieve a last paycheck.

Susy Martorell, a social worker and president of the board of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia who has run the Down syndrome group for about 10 years, said the group's members are constantly preoccupied with their legal status. That prompted her to depart from the group's main focus on health issues once or twice a year to bring in an immigration lawyer.

At a meeting last month, the parents listened raptly, concern visible on their faces, as attorney Luis Alemany answered questions and offered advice. Alemany urged them to prepare for the detention of one or both parents by securing passports and having a well thought-out plan for who will care for the children and how the family will be reunited if the parents are deported.

"Guests like him help us a lot because we learn a lot about immigration law and what we can do to prepare in case something happens," group member Leticia Gonzalez said in Spanish.

A 42-year-old stay-at-home mom from Mexico who lives in the Atlanta area, Gonzalez said she and her construction worker husband have been even more nervous since a man her husband works with was arrested and deported two months ago. The couple, who entered the U.S. illegally and have lived here for 17 years, have been trying to make sure they have all of his papers in order, including records of U.S. taxes he's paid on his income. But she said they don't yet have passports for all of their six children, four of whom are American-born.

Immigrant rights activists in different parts of the country said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seems to have stepped up its efforts in the last year or so, leading to more deportations. That seems to be supported by ICE removal numbers which have increased every year since 2003, the earliest year for which the agency provides numbers.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this and related issues.

Some Georgia farmers fear immigration reform

Georgia farmers want their voices heard in the debate over illegal immigration.

Many farmers are worried that local crackdowns on illegal immigrants will drive away needed workers. Some say Mexicans are the only ones who will work in the fields. They say crops are rotting in the fields while would-be legal workers are stuck abroad waiting for their visas. Some smaller farmers say they can’t afford the fees for the federal H-2 visa program that brings laborers into the country to work legally.

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates that at least half of the nation's 1-million hired farm workers are illegal workers. Some immigration control groups contend that for every illegal worker, there's an unemployed American who could just as quickly fill the spot.

Immigration worker charged with bribe taking

A former federal employee who worked with immigration services has been convicted of conspiring to encourage immigrants to enter the country illegally and accepting a bribe. Prosecutors say a federal jury found 54-year-old Hasmukh Patel of McDonough guilty Monday of taking actions to bring a foreign couple to this country with fraudulent work visas. A witness testified he paid Patel, an immigration adjudicatorwith the Department of Homeland Security, $100,000 to bring his brother and sister-in-law into the U.S. Witnesses from the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, India, testified Patel called the consulate to vouch for the visa application. Patel faces up to 49 years in prison and a $1.175 million fine when he is sentenced June 23 by U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper.

(Associated Press)

Gwinnett County Commissioners approve immigration proposal

Last night, Gwinnett County voted to require companies bidding on County contracts to verify immigration status of employees, and employees of their subcontractors.

The new law is a revision of an existing ordinance, and prevents companies hiring illegal immigrants from receiving County contracts.

The board also voted to periodically inspect the records of companies hired to do County work and to question their employees.

Critics warned the Commissioners that the new policy would be unconstitutional, could usurp the federal government's power to regulate immigration, and could violate federal privacy laws.

Local government contracts with private companies include construction of roads and providing food and medical care for jail inmates.

Immigration bills dies, with help from two GA senators

Today two Georgia senators did an about face on immigration legislation. Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson voted to kill a bill they helped write. Conservative critics argued that some of Chambliss and Isakson’s compromises amounted to amnesty. The two Republicans said opponents didn’t fully understand the bill. Now, they have backed away from the bill. The vote today probably killed any chance for immigration legislation until after next year's presidential election.

Ga. senators navigate oil drilling fight

Offishore oil drilling platform. (illustrative/AP File Photo)

The last time Georgia Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson tried to find middle ground in an emotional policy battle before Congress, they quickly abandoned a bipartisan immigration package after getting pilloried from the right.

Now the Republicans are in the thick of a debate over oil drilling, and they're again fending off criticism from the likes of Rush Limbaugh over a compromise that would raise taxes on oil companies while paving the way for new drilling off the nation's coasts.

View Larger Map
The issue could come to a head this week as energy takes center stage on Capitol Hill and both parties maneuver to take credit for addressing $4-a-gallon gas prices.

Chambliss and Isakson are so far standing firm behind their proposal, which started with backing from a so-called "Gang of 10" and now has 20 Senate sponsors. But as the package gains bipartisan support, it also is drawing complaints from Republicans that it undercuts GOP momentum on the year's most high-profile political issue weeks before the November elections.

Limbaugh has repeatedly ridiculed the proposal on his conservative radio show, saying House Republicans are pressing for much more ambitious drilling while the Senate proposal "basically cuts (them) off at the knees."

The senators also have taken heat from congressional colleagues, including from fellow Georgia Republicans. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta has said the senators are engaged in "procedural pleasantries" while Rep. Tom Price of Roswell contended their approach "doesn't make any sense to me."

Price said it is "foolhardy" to leave vast coastal areas off limits to drilling and said "tax increases on domestic oil production is counterproductive to bringing new American energy to the market."

Chambliss and Isakson dismiss the criticism, arguing that voters want Congress to set aside differences and agree on something that will make a difference - even if it requires trade-offs.

"Usually if the extremes are raising cain, it means you're doing something right," said Chambliss, who spearheaded the compromise along with Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat. "We think if anything is going to get 60 votes, it's going to be our proposal."

The plan would allow drilling 50 miles off the coasts of Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia, and the Gulf coast of Florida. It would eliminate tax breaks for the oil and gas industry to generate some $30 billion in revenue, with the money used to offset a massive new investment in alternative energy.

Republicans such as Gingrey and Price want an "all of the above" bill that would allow far more new drilling all along the East and West coasts and in restricted areas of Alaska, without the tax increases on domestic producers.

In years past, any new offshore production would have spawned a firestorm of criticism from drilling critics who argue that it could cause irreversible environmental harm and only a marginal impact on global oil prices. But with voters outraged about the price of gas, the critics appear resigned to allowing some new exploration.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has outlined a package that is more in line with the Senate compromise than with Republican proposals.

Last year, Chambliss and Isakson acknowledged that they backed out of the bipartisan coalition on immigration in part because of a strong backlash from conservative constituents.

While there have been calls of protest on their drilling plan, they say they haven't heard anywhere near the level of concern that they had on immigration and that they won't give up on their "gang" unless the package gets altered.

"As long as nobody tries to shift the policies in the proposal, we're not going to do that," Isakson said. "We've got a solid group."

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News stories about energy issues.

Lawrenceville man accused of Nazi war crimes

Trial proceedings have begun in an Atlanta courtroom, against a man accused of war crimes committed during World War II. Authorities allege 85 year old Paul Henss of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was a Nazi SS officer during World War II. Henss, who entered the U-S in 1955, faces deportation. Officials say Paul Henss hid his Nazi affiliation, while retaining German citizenship. During the war, officials say he handled attack dogs while on guard duty at Dachau and Buchenwald. A joint U-S based task force including immigration officials and the Department of Homeland Security say Nazi law required prison guards to quote act without mercy when training the dogs on prisoners. Since prosecution of Nazi war criminals began in 1979, more than 106 people have been stripped of U-S citizenship and deported to Germany. An additional 180 have been prevented from entering the county. Paul Henss is alleged to have joined the SS in 1941. The group was considered the most elite of Hitler's forces. An immigration judge in Atlanta will hear the case. Henss faces deportation to his native Germany, where he retains citizenship.

Atlanta One Of 30 Cities For Immigrant Reform Events

Immigrant rights advocates will hold a news conference on the steps of the Capitol this morning to launch the Georgia component of the national Reform Immigration For America campaign. The event will bring together labor, faith, business and immigrant community groups to push for comprehensive immigration reform. Similar local launches are scheduled in more than 30 other cities today. A three-day national campaign summit is set to start Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

More officers train for immigration enforcement

North Georgia police officers have begun new training to help them deport illegal immigrants. The Hall County Sheriff Department is the latest in Georgia to join the federal program called ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The training includes how to use Department of Homeland Security databases to identify criminals and illegal immigrants. Once they complete the course, officers will be able to begin deportation procedures for illegals already in their custody.

Panel hears about alleged misconduct in ICE raids

A panel of national commissioners heard testimony in Atlanta Thursday, accusing immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, agents of misconduct.

The National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights was started by the United Food and Commercial Workers' Union.

17 year old Marie Justeen Mancha, a U.S. citizen of Mexican origin, testified that ICE agents searched her house two years ago, when she was home alone.

"I looked around and there were about 4 or 5 men in my home," she said, "And they were coming up the stairs. They began to ask me questions. I started to feel closed in, like I couldn't say no or not answer them because they were blocking the front door, and it was just me and them."

Several attorneys said Georgia communities are using a federal provision that lets local officials enforce immigration law. They claim it's led to racial profiling. ICE officials deny that they have illegally searched homes or detained individuals.

Fed immigration bill set to aid ATL-based Home Depot

Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson has proposed an amendment to the federal immigration bill now being debated in Washington. What the amendment would mean is that big box stores that attract undocumented immigrants looking for work, won’t have to provide shelter or a place for workers to gather. The amendment benefits one of Isakson’s campaign contributors, the Atlanta-based home improvement chain Home Depot. And, because Isakson has tacked the amendment onto a federal law, his proposal would override any existing state or local regulation. A spokesperson says Isakson is traveling and unavailable for comment. In Los Angeles, where Home Depot wants to open 13 stores, the city council is considering a law requiring the company to shelter day workers after residents complained the presence of the largely illegal workers are a nuisance. Home Depot did not return calls by the deadline for this story. The company has given Isakson more than 50-thousand dollars over the past three years.