On Monday night people crammed into a room at the United Methodist Church on Burton, near Division to hear information on current immigration legislation. Andres Abreu, editor of one of Spanish language newspaper El Vocero welcomed an audience that was mostly Latino/a. He quickly turned it over to local attorney Rick Kessler who provided a summary of the current legislation, but prefaced the summary by saying that the “legislation which passed in the House (Ehlers voted for it) and will be debated in the Senate in early February is a racist policy that is being promoted as an anti-terrorism bill.
The House version of the legislation, HR 4437, would criminalize undocumented immigrants, so instead of just deporting people they could imprison them. Second, it would make any relative, employer, coworker, or friend of an undocumented immigrant into an “alien smuggler” and a criminal. Third, it would make it very difficult for legal permanent residents to become citizens. Fourth, it would turn state and local police into immigration agents, and lastly, it would require employers to verify workers’ legal status, without providing access to legal workers through immigration reform.
Once the summary of the legislation was laid out for those in attendance, numerous questions were put to the lawyers present. The questions reflected two main issues, what rights do immigrants have and what can we do about this legislation? Understandably, many of those present were angered by the information shared and wanted to figure out ways to get this information out to more people. Some people offered to get the word out through radio, while others talked about handing out flyers or posting them in businesses. Some people wondered about the likelihood of this legislation passing in the Senate. Those who organized the event felt that it could pass if there was no or little public pressure. They said that if enough people wrote or called their Senators the legislation might be revised and then go back to the House. This would at least allow for more time to educate and organize. Rick Kessler also said that it is an opportunity to talk about good legislative proposals such as the Dream Act and the Kennedy/McCain bill.
Before people left the organizers invited people to provide names and contact information and some discussion of hosting another forum was proposed at a location to be determined.
