Conventions oddly quiet about immigrationTravelers heard more about immigration on their way to the national conventions than they did after arriving.
BY KENT JACKSON
STAFF WRITER
Published: Friday, September 5, 2008 4:32 AM EDT
Travelers heard more about immigration on their way to the national conventions than they did after arriving.
A group from the New York Immigration Coalition, which stopped in Hazleton on Aug. 21, visited other places that made news for immigration events on the way to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
In Denver, they met Mario Castellon, who bicycled from El Salvador to highlight the plight of immigrants in America. Also they joined thousands of others on Aug. 28 in a pro-immigration march, which passed an empty sports stadium and followed a highway rather than residential streets.
�It was important to march and show solidarity, but the effect of the march is questionable. Nobody inside the convention is talking about immigration, no one is addressing the raids happening right now, nobody seems to feel the need to address this now,� one of the coalition members wrote in a blog that the group kept during their trip.
A raid searching for immigrant workers occurred on Aug. 25, the day the convention started, when federal officials detained nearly 600 people in Laurel, Miss. A platform that the Democratic Party approved before the convention called such raids ineffective and said that they divide families. Both the Democratic and Republican platforms, however, called for a method in which employers could learn whether job applicants had legal status to work in the United States. The system, now known as E-Verify, was part of Hazleton�s proposed Illegal Immigration Reform Act, which is under appeal after a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional.
Another raid took in nearly 400 workers in May in Postville, Iowa, where the coalition�s group stopped on the way to Denver. The Rev. Paul Ouderkirk told them that when he arrived at St. Bridget�s R.C. Church after the raid he found perhaps 400 people staying in the church, office and rectory. They were children and other relatives of the factory workers who had been taken in raid, and they feared that they would be apprehended too if they went home. For a week, they stayed at the church while volunteers from the congregation and other local churches fed them.
The raid �took one-sixth of the town, one-third of the school and half of this parish. You don�t recover from that very fast,� Ouderkirk said in an interview that is videotaped and available on the blog.
�Postville somehow brought everything to a head for us,� another blog entry said. �Throughout this road trip, we�ve been moving along on a kind of undercurrent of sorrow and discomfort � a feeling I hadn�t quite yet articulated but could feel nagging at me. But I came out of so many of our stops on this road trip with an uneasy sense of regret, and Postville was where the cumulative impact of that sentiment unfolded into what I can only call grief.�
The blog said that people in Hazleton and Riverside, N.J., on both sides of battles that were fought in their towns about immigration laws seemed bruised. Karen Kaminsky, the communications director for the New York Immigration Coalition and one of the group that drove to Denver, said the battles bring up legitimate concerns.�But it stirs it up in a way that�s well beyond. There�s no doubt there are concerns. There�s no doubt it�s a broken system. There�s no doubt there are stresses communities go through as the population shifts. But I don�t think there needs to be this level of vindictiveness and this punitive approach. That doesn�t get to the real issue,� Kaminsky said.
Milan Bhatt, the coalition�s coordinator for worker�s rights, said the Denver march was a high point for him. �It was a few hours of the whole week where we really saw attention we need focused on the issue,� Bhatt said. In Denver, however, he learned that voters OK�d a ballot initiative aimed at illegal immigrants that impounded the cars of unlicensed drivers who could not prove citizenship. He wished both conventions focused more attention on immigration. �Both candidates need to step it up,� Bhatt said.
Norman Eng, the media director for the coalition, went to St. Paul, Minn., where the Republicans held their convention.His first blog entry after landing at the airport in Minneapolis on Wednesday, described a heavy police presence at intersections and hotels. He also noted the businesses run by immigrants, mostly Somalis who came as refugees from civil war and Hmong from Laos and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Rick Morelli, an alternate delegate to the convention from Sugarloaf, said Tuesday that delegates were eager to talk about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the economy and national security. No one mentioned immigration unless he brought up the topic.
The Republican platform links immigration to security and said unidentified people can�t remain in the country in an age of drug cartels, terrorism and criminal gangs. More immigration agents should be hired, illegal immigrants who commit other crimes should serve time in prison and then be sent to immigration authorities, the platform says.The platform champions the rule of law and suggests withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities and opposing driver�s licenses or amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Republican nominee John McCain favors deporting illegal immigrants who commit crimes and said he would strengthen the border before trying to implement a plan that he supported in 2006 to offer illegal immigrants a path to become legal residents.
Likewise Democratic nominee Barack Obama favors more security on the border and wants to help Mexico develop jobs and retain workers who otherwise might seek to enter the United States illegally. Deporting 12 million illegal immigrants is impossible, Obama believes, so he proposes offering them a way to become legal residents.
The Democratic platform reflects those views by proposing that illegal immigrants receive a path toward citizenship and promoting economic development in nations that send immigrants. Also, the Democrats call for more border guards and crackdowns on smuggling.
Both the Republican and Democratic platforms recognize that immigrants helped build America. �America has always been a nation of immigrants ... who have contributed to �our country�s rich culture, economy and spirt,� the Democrats say. The Republican platform says, �Today�s immigrants are walking in the steps of most other Americans� ancestors, seeking the American dream and contributing culturally and economically to our nation."
kjackson@standardspeaker.com
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