Local advocates shift strategy on immigration
Chattanooga Times
Wednesday, May 02, 2007 –

By Karina Gonzalez
Staff Writer

While thousands rallied for immigration reform in the streets nationwide Tuesday, area advocates for immigrants recruited voters in Tennessee and Georgia and called state and federal lawmakers.

Some groups will continue the National Call-In Days initiative through Thursday.

“I feel the community wants to march again, but we have to be wise in when we want to march, when it’s more effective to march,” said Lisa Barba, East Tennessee coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. “We’ve got to put our allies and our voices to work, and that’s through the phone.”

However, thousands in Chicago, Phoenix, Detroit, Miami and other cities rallied for reform that would include a path toward citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now living in the United States, The Associated Press reported. An estimated 400 protested in Washington, D.C., 100 in Miami and about 400 in Los Angeles, the AP reported.

In Santa Ana, Calif., about 5,000 people rallied for the legalization of all illegal immigrants as well as a stop to immigration raids and deportations. The group, which also opposes a fence on the Mexican border and the Iraq war, was met by counterdemonstrators, according to Maria Rosa Ibarra with the Mexican American Political Association, a group leading the demonstrations.

Chattanooga resident Walter Lucas, a native of Guatemala who participated in two area rallies last year, said he hoped for a similar demonstration this year.

“It’s lamentable, because the advocates who lead the Hispanic community here ought to continue supporting a protest, a boycott like last year,” he said, speaking in Spanish. “Those things were noticeable, and the American people were able to see that they need the Latin community.”…

D.A. King with the Dustin Inman Society, a Marietta, Ga.-based group pushing for tougher enforcement of immigration laws and tighter border security, said the group is ready to rally against any form of immigration reform that includes a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“We will vehemently oppose any repeat of the 1986 one-time pass to citizenship legalization program for any and all people in this country illegally,” Mr. King said at a rally of up to 1,000 participants at the nation’s capitol last week. “We are demanding punishment for the criminal employers and the bankers.”

Mr. King said his group is demanding that “English be the common and official language of the United States.”

Read the entire report and listen to audio quotes…mine in English…here.

Sign of the times: When a reporter gets it right and does a fair and balanced report, they deserve a note of appreciation. I sent one to this reporter simply saying “good job”…I hope that you will.