Local News
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Crossing the lineFEATURES WRITER
Things have changed for those tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Those headed for America's teeming shore face not just red tape and economic struggle, but misconceptions and outdated laws, according to one activist.
Baldemar Velasquez, president and founder of Farm Laborers Organizing Committee (FLOC), is hoping to shed light on the realities of immigration and the need for reform at an educational forum scheduled 6-8 p.m. Thursday at the auditorium of the Elizabeth Schaefer Apartments on the Sisters of St. Francis Community campus, 190 St. Francis Ave., Tiffin. The event is sponsored by FLOC, the Campaign for Migrant Worker Justice (CMWJ), ACLU of Ohio, ABLE, Jobs with Justice and the Catholic Diocese of Toledo.
The speakers for the event will include Velasquez and Eugenio Mollo, an attorney with ABLE.
"We feel a lot of the issues on immigration is fueled by a lot of ignorance and talking heads on radio and TV who are distorting matters and presenting things in a very superficial way," said Velasquez.
Among the most glaring distortions is that immigrant workers are taking jobs away from American citizens and are a drain on the economy and the social service system, according to Velasquez.
"This is completely false. Every scientific study of areas with large immigrant workers actually show the contrary. Immigrants put a lot more into economy than they take out," he said.
The jobs many immigrants take are "low wage, dangerous, dirty jobs, (which are) shunned by most Americans, even when they run out of unemployment."
"(TV hosts) take isolated incidents, like a hospital along border which closed due to immigrants using it, and make sound like this happening in Toledo, Ohio," said Velasquez.
FLOC is a member of the AFL-CIO and describes itself as both a social movement and a labor union. It represents migrant workers in the agricultural industry, but is also involved with immigrant workers, Latinos, local communities, and national and international coalitions concerned with justice. According to its Web site, the organization began in the 1960's when Velasquez convinced a small group of migrant farm workers in northwest Ohio.
In this area, the majority of immigrants are farm workers, but many local businesses employ immigrants for landscaping, construction and semi-agriculture industries, such as green houses and nurseries, he stated.
The forum will also address what should be done about immigration policy in the United States.
"There has to be immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship to those who are stuck here in this country. There needs to be some consistency in what we preach in this country. If we want a free market, then we need to talk about making labor market a free market as well. Let the needs of the businesses determine who works here and when," said Velasquez.
He believes the undocumented workers are victims as well. Part of the solution for Velasquez is refocusing efforts into getting employers and corporations into compliance, rather than focusing on people "whose only crime is crossing the border."
"For every illegal alien, there is an illegal employer. If a business wasn't hiring them, they wouldn't be there, yet all we do is blame the victim," Velasquez said.
He pointed out undocumented workers get all deductions, such as federal, state and local taxes, Social Security, worker's compensation and Medicare taken out of their paychecks, but can never collect on those benefits.
"If you know anyone receiving Social Security, that is in part thanks to 12 million undocumented workers putting into the system but never taking anything out," he said.
He believes most people have no idea how immigration has changed over time, to the detriment of those who seek to find a legal path to citizenship in the United States.
"If we had the laws for this country that were in existence when most people's grandparents came here, 99 percent of people who are undocumented would be on way to becoming a citizen. We have to make laws to comply with changing human reality," said Velasquez.
For more information about the forum, call 419-243-3456, ext. 3 or visit www.floc.org.
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Ph: (419) 435-6641 • Fax: (419) 435-9073
113 E. Center St. • P.O. Box 947
Fostoria, OH 44830
The Findlay Publishing Company
P.O. Box 609
Findlay, OH 45839-0609
Phone: (419) 422-5151
www.findlaypublishing.com
Please read our privacy guidelines
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1 Comment
And please do not tell me anyone I know that is now collecting social security that it is thanks to the illegal immigrant. It is thanks to them that put far more money in the system than they will ever receive back.
we have every right to want our laws enforced, laws that are more lenient than any other country in the world.
Put your energy into improving the countries these people are coming from, you would be much more productive.