Posted on 02/19/2009 8:22:13 AM PST by stan_sipple
The state’s Latino community turned out in force Wednesday at the state Capitol to show its opposition to two bills that would require verification of legal status to access jobs and public benefits.
Supporters of the bills turned out, too, to testify before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee at the sixth hearing addressing immigration within the past year.
Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford, who introduced a bill (LB34) that would require employers to verify legal status through the E-Verify system, said the federal government has failed to address immigration laws for two decades. It has led to discrimination against Latinos who are here legally but perceived to be undocumented. And it has created a permanent underclass of workers.
“That is absolutely and totally unacceptable,” he said.
A second bill (LB403), introduced on behalf of Gov. Dave Heineman by Sen. Russ Karpisek of Wilber, would prohibit public benefits to undocumented residents, except those exempted by federal law.
The bill does not address allowing in-state tuition at Nebraska colleges for undocumented students, but does propose that those students could not get financial aid or other assistance. Only those students identifying themselves as non-citizens would have to be verified.
In 2008, the state used the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program for 3,318 verifications of legal status, said Nebraska Department of Labor Commissioner Catherine Lang. SAVE found 58 of 3,145 people filing claims who identified themselves as non-citizens were ineligible.
The state would have paid those 58 claimants $322,448 if they had not been identified as ineligible, she said.
Many of the bills’ supporters said the state has to do something to discourage undocumented workers from coming to Nebraska for jobs. Others said when citizens break laws they are charged with crimes and sent to prison, and people who break immigration laws should not be allowed to do so without penalty.
Dennis Murphy, with Nebraska Minuteman, said the notion that illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans don’t want is wrong. Many retirees needing to return to work and people who have been laid off from jobs could take those jobs.
Before the hearing, the Latino Coalition of Nebraska brought together community leaders, business owners, church representatives and others to express opposition to the bills and describe why they would damage not only Latinos but the whole state.
Anita Maddali of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Chicago said E-Verify is flawed and using it would lead to discrimination against anyone who looks or sounds foreign.
Ever Preciado, who owns El Rancho restaurant at 27th and O streets, and business owner Ricardo Castro said E-Verify would burden small businesses. Mandating its use, Castro said, would mean more time and expense for many small businesses that would have to buy a computer and high-speed Internet service, and learn to use the program.
Ben Salazar, publisher of Nuestro Mundo, a Spanish/English newspaper in Omaha, said his family had been in this country nearly 100 years, and racism and discrimination existed then as it does now.
“Today, for the last several years, Latinos are the new target, the new scapegoats of this society,” he said.
At the hearing, the Rev. Dr. Chuck Bentjen of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in Nebraska said a wave of fear in the nation is making people do and say things they normally wouldn’t. It is causing them to stand in opposition to their brothers and sisters in Christ, even though God calls them to love, he said.
The bills don’t reflect Nebraska values, he said. Instead, people ought to be rolling up their sleeves and helping their neighbors.
Fixed it.
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Ever Preciado, who owns El Rancho restaurant at 27th and O streets, and business owner Ricardo Castro said E-Verify would burden small businesses. Mandating its use, Castro said, would mean more time and expense for many small businesses that would have to buy a computer and high-speed Internet service, and learn to use the program. “
Oh shut up, even I could set that up for you and I’d do it for free!
God willing, Nebraska will stick to its guns and make it a criminal offense to hire illegals. And if the feds are upset about it, greet them with two famous words: Adios Amigo!
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