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Posted on 05/02/2006 7:28:32 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
ITHACA — Standing just five feet tall, Cornell student and Mexican immigrant Tania Penafort seemed dwarfed by the large “No Human Is Illegal” banner hanging Monday in the Bernie Milton Pavilion at the Immigrant Rights Rally on The Commons.
Yet she stood in front of it and spoke, along with several others, including Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson, about the plight of immigrants, illegal and otherwise, in America.
The rally, held in conjunction with national immigrant rights rallies, was organized by a local coalition of groups, including the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County, Immigrant Rights Center, Catholic Charities of Tompkins-Tioga Counties, Ithaca Asian-American Association and the Farmworker Advocacy Coalition.
“Republicans in Congress can't decide whom to pander to - the corporations, or the xenophobes,” said Dan Lamb, a representative of Congressman Maurice Hinchey.
“It's this group that passed this harsh [Sensenbrenner] bill,” he said. “Creating a police state is no substitute for immigration reform.”
Hinchey advocates creating paths to citizenship for immigrants and giving more resources, like funding to hire lawyers and caseworkers to meet the backlog of immigration cases, to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Lamb said.
The mention of DHS drew some boos from the crowd.
By making it illegal to assist immigrants, the Sensenbrenner Bill criminalizes organizations that provide essential services to people of all backgrounds, explained Rene Funke, co-director of the Samaritan Center of Catholic Charities of Tompkins-Tioga Counties.
In her speech, Funke said Catholic Charities of Tompkins-Tioga Counties would continue their work even if the Sensenbrenner Bill is passed.
Mary Jo Dudley, director of the Cornell Migrant Program spoke about the estimated 40,000 to 60,000 farm workers in New York state.
“It is estimated that 75 percent of these farm workers are unauthorized to work in the United States,” she said.
“The farm workers are keeping agriculture alive in New York state. This is one place where farmers and farm workers agree that something must be done about this situation.”
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Dudley later explained, the United States subsidized domestic corn production and put Mexican corn farmers out of business.
“Many people who were subsistence corn farmers can no longer live on corn, so they come here,” she said. “The immigrant problem is connected to our policies.”
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