Forceful immigration enforcement causing divide, panel says

Many layers of the complex immigration issue -- economic, racial, moral, historic -- were discussed in a forum at the University of Northern Colorado Sunday night.

Two themes emerged during the discussion, which featured a pro-immigrant rights panel of UNC professors and local activists. Panelists said the United States is a nation of immigrants and a country where immigration enforcement currently relies on divisive force and is in dire need of reform.

The forum, which drew about 35 people, was hosted by the Summit Organizing Committee for Social Justice and Diversity, a UNC student group.

Some of the more impassioned comments were tied to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at Swift & Co. plants last December. About 1,300 workers were arrested at six Swift plants nationwide, including 270 in Greeley.

Ricardo Romero, a Greeley activist, cited a Guatemalan family to illustrate the human pain the raid caused. He said the mother and father spoke a Mayan dialect -- not Spanish or English. Their child ended up with a baby-sitter for 30 days before the father was released on bond. The mother was deported to Mexico, where she knew no one, he said.

"They were totally devastated because she didn't know what to do in Mexico, and he didn't know what to do to help her," Romero said.

Priscilla Falcon, a Hispanic studies professor at UNC, said the children of the arrested workers at the Greeley plant -- 200 children had at least one parent among the detained -- were mostly American-born.

"The kids are citizen children and they're being impacted by these unjust laws -- no, there aren't even any laws right now," Falcon said. "They're being impacted by unjust ICE policies, and we're trying to say, 'No, you can't continue with those policies.'"

Several speakers argued that immigrants are exploited in the United States for cheap labor. At worst, they say, the practice has racist undercurrents.

"You're looking at racism as a system of economic and political control," said Enrique Maestas, an adjunct faculty member in Hispanic studies at UNC.

George Junne, a professor of Africana studies at UNC, referred to Wyoming farmers who only hire Mexicans and high school students because they're the only groups who will work the fields.

"If everyone cracks down on immigrants, everyone would see prices double and triple on things," Junne said. "People will see the contributions those people make."

Patricia Escobar, who will soon graduate from UNC with a degree in Spanish liberal arts, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her father, a construction worker, became a U.S. citizen in 1989 -- 11 years after coming to America.

Escobar showed a series of "myths and facts" on immigration, most pointing out the economic benefits immigrants bring the U.S, while leaving $20 billion of their contributions (1990 to 1998) to the Social Security Administration uncollected.

She said her family, now U.S. citizens, has never used welfare or social programs of the like because it was "ingrained in our blood" not to.

"Dad said, 'We're not going to come here to get a free handout,'" she said. "We're here to build and give.'"

She said her father proudly displayed his U.S. citizenship certificate on the wall.

"That's another myth -- that we would be disloyal to the U.S.," Escobar said. "From the people I know, we would gladly die for this country."

Romero pointed out that the U.S. was founded upon immigrants. "How come when Europeans came they were immigrants; when my people come they're illegal immigrants?" he said. "You young people better change something ... because if you don't the whole thing is going to blow up on all of us."