Immigration battle gains strength
Immigration battle gains strength
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894
By Devona Walker
Published: November 2, 2007
Some carried bilingual signs or U.S. flags. Others carried small children. More than a thousand, primarily Hispanic, protesters congregated Thursday outside the state Capitol in objection to House Bill 1804.
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For the children
Carmen Sanchez, a legal resident, has lived in Oklahoma for 27 years. She thinks if most Americans knew about the poverty and political corruption in Mexico, they would better understand why so many risk coming here. In Mexico, she and her family lived in extreme poverty, but in Oklahoma they found work and prosperity.
"When I think of this law, my heart cries for the children. So many children are being separated from their parents because of this,” Sanchez said. "We just come to make a better life for our families.”
For other citizens of the United States, such as Carol Soto, immigration fears have hit even closer to home.
Two weeks ago, she said, her aunt was deported.
"They went to her house. They told her they would wait until she picked up her kids,” Soto said. "When she came back, they took her away.”
The aunt left behind a husband and four children. The husband, also illegal, recently drove the two youngest children back to Mexico. He will try to sneak back across the border so he can work and pay for his family's return, Soto said.
Meanwhile, the two older children remain here with extended family members.
"It's been very hard on the children. They are so scared,” Soto said.
Here to work
Others who were at the protest are not here legally but came here to work.
"This country is not ours. But since we are here, we are gong to fight for our rights,” said Isobel, an illegal immigrant who came to this country about five years ago. She was at the protest with 10 other immigrants from work.
"When I came across the border, I already knew this might be the case,” Isobel said of the possibility of deportation. "But I came to work, that's the reason I came here. We don't come to hurt anyone. And I will keep working.”
Walk it alone
Among the crowd of so many were about a dozen black people. Some wore NAACP T-shirts. At least one even carried signs.
Also present were a handful of black community leaders, including state Rep. Mike Shelton and Roosevelt Milton, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Oklahoma City chapter.
"This is how change happens. They are not the first group to come to the south side steps of the Capitol to change things,” Shelton said. "I'm a firm believer of Dr. Martin Luther King, and it's like he said, ‘Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.'
"And it's important that people don't have to walk alone. The black people didn't walk alone in their struggle,” he added.
Milton, too, pointed to the common struggles of Hispanics and blacks. But he also noted that the black community itself is still divided on the subject.
A few days ago, he attended a news conference standing beside Hispanic leaders, protesting HB 1804.
It sparked some controversy in the community, he said.
Some said he should focus on the many Haitian immigrants whose plight has largely been overlooked while others praised him and joined the NAACP, Milton said.
Related Topics:
Special Interest Groups, Social Issues, Hispanic and Latino Issues, African-American Issues, Racial Issues, Immigration
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language.. ENGLISH - ENGLISH - ENGLISH..
LEGAL - LEGAL - LEGAL -- WELCOME - WELCOME - WELCOME.
Some in this country argue that the solution is to deport every illegal immigrant, and that any proposal short of this amounts to amnesty. I disagree," he said. "It is neither wise nor realistic to round up millions of people, many with deep roots in the United States, and send them across the border.
President Bush believes that, there is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation."
“The U.S does not plan to militarize the southern border. Mexico is a neighbor and friend, Mr. Bush said. The U.S. will continue to work cooperatively to improve security on both sides of the border, confront common problems like drug trafficking and crime, and reduce illegal immigration.
President Bush believes illegal immigrants who want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, pay their taxes, learn English, and work in a job for a number of years. The President also believes that there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently and someone who has worked here for many years, and has a home, a family, and an otherwise clean record. Those who meet the conditions should be able to apply for citizenship but approval will not be automatic, and they will have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the law. )
Gosh, to me that sounds like a great idea. But of course! Some of you have made this about race. Mexico isn't the only country where illegals come from. There are many others.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If I were unlucky enough to have been born in a poor country that's turned its back on me and my family (through no fault of my own or my parents), and I had an opportunity to cross the border to the USA to prevent myself or my family from starving, yes, I might do it.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But, knowing what I know as an American:
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**** I wouldn't live in the new country as if it were mine.
*** I would behave as if I were a guest in someone's home, and the worst kind--an uninvited one. In other words, I would make sure my behavior was impeccable.
*** I wouldn't take liberties that are not mine to take.
*** I would be extremely careful to take care of the property where I live.
*** I wouldn't make demands of the people or the government that are not mine to make.
*** I would make sure that I toed the line in terms of every ordinance and law.
*** I would have a contingency plan for myself and my family if any of us were to get deported, and if that occurred, I would acknowledge that such an occurrrence is our responsibility and no one else's.
*** I would realize and acknowledge that in this new country where I'm working and living, I'm taking advantage of all the things I didn't have in my own country:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*access to free medical care if I need it and can't pay for it,* public education for my children,,*
*welfare for my American-born children, if I should foolishly or accidentally have any and they should need it,, * free public representation in court if I stupidly commit a crime, language translators in court, and every other due-process protection during criminal and civil proceedings, ** consistently clean and safe water, ** vaccinations and control of diseases (including ones I might have brought with me)
**indoor plumbing,
**affordable public transportation
**a sympathetic local government that has acknowledged it will shield me with sanctuary if necessary,
** good roads,
** reliable electricity,
** public parks for our weekend parties and cook-outs,
** police protection where no one is allowed to ask my immigration status,
** garbage pick-up and sanitation services,
** free ESL classes courtesy of local school districts or churches,
** graffiti abatement if my children are so stupid as to deface public property,
** abandoned grocery cart retrieval if I can't afford a car or a baby stroller,
** basic traffic and pedestrian training programs since I don't know all the rules about walking in busy city traffic, or driving without a license, registration or insurance,
I would not be so stupid as to alienate myself any further from my American hosts by calling them names, disrespecting their customs, or calling them racists, bigots and hatemongers. If I want to succumb to the temptation to do so, I will understand that I am not the kind of permanent resident or citizen they want in their country. I will understand their anger and resentment of me.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the things listed above that I'm now enjoying took a lot of money, time and effort and ongoing civic and personal responsibility to build and maintain.-----------------------------------------------------------------In other words, under the circumstances, they have the upper hand, and WE don't. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**
I am not against immigration, legal immigration, but I do believe we need to change the 14th amendment to stop the "anchor baby" syndrome. If someone comes here illegally and that is of any race/nationality, through our ports as stowaways or across any of our borders illegally, if they have children here once illegally on our soil, our constitution should NOT automatically give those children citizenship. If I could change it, children who are born in this country of illegal immigrant parents would NEVER get citizenship status. There ought to be a hue and cry for such an amendment instead of the flag amendment or marriage amendment.
If we don't close our borders,...ALL OUR BORDERS and patrol/police our ports much better we WILL be wipin' our weepin' eyes again over another attack like 911. No it won't be from illegal immigrants coming from Canada or Mexico or Central and South America or China it will be from non-Western hemisphere terroists who will easily bribe their way through lawless countries on our borders into our southern/southwestern states and this time the attack could very well be nuclear as in "dirty bombs".
My heart goes out to those people who have waited for years to get into this country. They have dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" and yet we let illegals get benefits and jobs and keep these worthwhile, law-abiding, future Americans sit and twirl in their home country.
For those in this forum who ask why there are not more of us who are FOR the immigration law out protesting for the bill, I assure them, that for this one opinion email in an Oklahoman Newspaper forum, I have sent a dozen emails to others with political clout expressing my gratitude that our democratic system is working, at least on this one particular issue in the State of Oklahoma. The bill is law because lawmakers were the SERVANTS or EMPLOYEES of the MAJORITY of Oklahoma Citizen who hired them with their votes. They are not our RULERS/LEADERS. They have done as they are supposed to do and SERVED us by passing this law that the MAJORITY of people wanted,...to NOT encourage ILLEGAL aliens in to our Country. I know you who are here illegally do NOT understand this, but that is DEMOCRACY. It is not a Fascist State controlled by a minority elite on the Right. It is NOT a Socialistic Union, controlled by a minority on the Left. It is a law because a MAJORITY of Oklahomans voted for those who would indeed do their bidding.
I bet anything a MAJORITY of these same people would vote to get most of the LEGALLY waiting immigrants from all countries of the world into our country if we could get it to be a national vote. The only thing that might keep me from voting for immigrants who have done everything legally to get in to this country and now sit and wait, sometimes for years, is if they were convicted of ILLEGAL acts in their country. Ah, there's that word again ILLEGAL.
And like someone has pointed out, I too work 6 days a week and am barely able to afford car insurance on what I make.
Just thought I would share.. what the real cost and projectec cost are... to Oklahoma
for emergency medical care, education and incarceration resulting if an amnesty is adopted for illegal residents.
Current $207,000,000 billion... does it look like if they were gone it really wouldn't hurt us it would save us a lot.
Most of our money is going to pay for freebies for all the illegals... while our own can't find jobs, afford health care and can't get it because the system that was meant for citizens of Oklahma are going to illegals... Keith.. I hope you work, because I guess that 30 to 35% of your check goes to the government for taxes... and for illegals to get freebies... if they want to stay here they can do it right... no one wants them to be harmed... or ignroed.. people want them to be hard working tax, and law abiding citizens... OH< WAIT OUR ECONOMY WOULD FAIL IF THEY DID THAT WOULDN't it KEITH? If the became tax payers.. oh who cut who's throat?