Illegal-alien plan called a bad idea
Posted on Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A news conference by a group that advocates for illegal aliens turned mildly confrontational Monday when opponents attended and alleged that contractors are driving off legal workers by hiring illegal aliens who work cheaply. The intruding group held signs calling such employers criminals.
In another development regarding immigration, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe said late Monday that the state signed an agreement with the federal government regarding immigration laws. The state’s proposal has been pending for months.
Few details were available, but Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said it involved only document training and not enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The Arkansas Friendship Coalition held the news conference in the Capitol to tout a study by an Oklahoma firm on the “economic hardship” to be expected as a result of legislation in Oklahoma.
The study by Economic Impact Group LLC of Edmond, Okla., predicts problems for Oklahoma’s economy resulting from legislation designed to punish employers for hiring illegal aliens.
The coalition’s chairman, the Rev. Stephen Copley, a United Methodist minister, said the same kind of problems could be expected in Arkansas if the Arkansas Legislature or the people, through an initiated act, adopt such a law.
A group calling itself Secure Arkansas has submitted a proposed initiated act to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. If McDaniel’s office approves the language as proper legal form, the group could then collect signatures to place it on Arkansas’ Nov. 4 ballot. The proposal would bar certain government services to illegal aliens.
Copley said his group would campaign against such a measure.
After the news media asked questions, a man stood up and alleged that the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences was using contractors for construction projects that employ “illegal Mexicans” making $ 3. 50 an hour who send most of their money back to Mexico.
“I don’t think that’s right, and I don’t think the governor should have approved it,” he said. “Citizens ought to come first.”
He said some “non-Caucasian” workers have lost their jobs to the illegal construction workers.
He said former Gov. “Hucklebee” — evidently a reference to ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee — signed off on the contracts and Gov. Mike Beebe has allowed it to continue.
Alan Leveritt, publisher of Arkansas Times and a member of the coalition, responded to the man, calling his allegation “pure nonsense.”
Leveritt said Hispanics won’t work for that little an hour.
“The idea that you have a cement man working for $ 3. 50 an hour is a phantom. That does not exist,” he said.
The man responded that Leveritt should investigate the contractors. The man said he knows Spanish and that when he asks some of the workers about their status they “run like rabbits.”
Another coalition board member, Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, interrupted the man and said he should call his own news conference instead of talking during her group’s time.
“I understand the economic stress, but unfortunately I think people are looking for scapegoats,” she told the man. “It happened in 1930 s Germany, and the scapegoat today happens to be Latinos. The reference to ‘non-Caucasians’ makes it abundantly clear that that is much more what’s behind some of these remarks.”
Sklar criticized the man for presenting no proof of his allegations.
The man, who was white, then left the Capitol without identifying himself.
Beebe spokesman Matt De-Cample said later he has heard of no problems with UAMS contractors involving illegal workers.
Two other opponents of illegal immigration, Kenny John Wallis of North Little Rock and Dylan Ferrell of Fayetteville, attended the news conference.
Wallis held a sign that said “Employers of Illegal Immigrants are Criminals Too.”
They said that government should be wary of helping illegal aliens. They cited a recent murder in Northwest Arkansas they said was perpetrated by an illegal alien and they alleged that illegal aliens are responsible for much of the drug activity in Northwest Arkansas.
Leveritt responded that it was wrong to paint a race of people with a broad brush because of isolated criminal acts.
Regarding the agreement by state police, DeCample said late Monday that the police agency signed an agreement with the U. S. Department of Homeland Security. He referred additional comment to state police.
Sadler, the state police spokesman, said he wasn’t sure who would pay for the training, but he thought that the federal government would provide it free of charge and state police would only be out the time of its officer for the training.
He didn’t know how long the training would take or whether the state would pay expenses for officers at training. He said it would probably start sometime in May or June at five sites in the state.
“This is a training program to educate troopers, radio personnel and driving license examiners about documents in possession of Mexican nationals such as birth certificates, driving licenses, visas, any document a citizen of Mexico may present to a law enforcement officer as a means of identification,” Sadler said. “It will be training that will introduce them to a database that they will have access to check the validity of those documents.”
Sadler said troopers who would come in contact with people with documents that may be fraudulent would have to contact federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“It would not be a matter of state police taking these individuals into custody,” he said.
Beebe said last year that state police had initiated the process of getting such an agreement with the federal government but that he didn’t want state officials to enforce federal immigration laws like some agencies in other states have agreed to do.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
