Immigrant advocates target law

Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 30, 2006 at midnight

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A local immigrant advocacy group has documented about 20 cases of local residents who say they have been unfairly targeted by police, and in some cases deported, because of a new state immigration law that took effect in May.

An organizer for Rights for All People testified at a pro-immigrant hearing Tuesday night in Denver that her group is compiling the stories as part of a campaign to overturn the law, known as Senate Bill 90.

Pilar Carrillo cited several examples of members of her organization who were arrested by police this summer during traffic stops in Aurora. One woman, who allegedly was stopped because her car lights were off, was sent to jail and deported to Mexico on Tuesday, Carrillo said.

The new law has "brought horrible pain and unhappiness" and is "leaving many families broken," she said.

Carrillo was one of 11 people who addressed a panel of community leaders during a two-hour hearing at St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church in the Baker neighborhood. The event was organized to counter a U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing this afternoon in Aurora, led by U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.

The speakers urged compassion for illegal immigrants and said the highly charged political climate and rash of enforcement-oriented state immigration laws passed in recent months have caused tremendous fear and, in some cases, trouble, among local immigrants.

Gabriela Flora, an organizer with the American Friends Service Committee, charged that the Senate hearing was organized in part "to raise anti-immigrant fervor."

Local activists on both sides of the immigration issue are angry that they were not allowed to testify at the Senate hearing. Pro-immigrant activists plan to protest outside the Senate hearing.

Sean Conway, Allard's chief of staff, denied that the hearing is biased against immigrants. He noted that one of the nine people scheduled to testify at the Senate hearing favors a guest-worker program.

Conway attended the Tuesday hearing with another Allard staffer and collected written testimony from the speakers.

He emphasized that Allard asked for the Budget Committee hearing to collect precise data on the costs associated with immigration policies. He said Allard believes the immigration problem must be solved, in part, at the local level.

"These folks tonight . . . have part of the answer," Conway said.

Tuesday's hearing, called "Untold Stories: An Alternative Hearing on Immigration," was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Colorado Jobs with Justice, Rights for All People, Padres Unidos and the Service Employees International Union Local 105, among others.

Andy Grant, president and general manager of Grant Family Farms in Wellington, testified that migrant workers from Texas and Mexico have been hearing about the new immigration laws passed in Colorado and the immigration reform debate going on in Congress.

They are afraid to come to Colorado and that is hurting his farm, Grant said. He said he has just half the workers he needs to harvest his crops.

Grant praised immigrants for their hard work.

"They need to be honored . . . not demonized," he said.

Carrillo, of Rights for All People, said she also has seen fear among many illegal immigrants because of the current political climate.

She said her group hopes to persuade a state lawmaker to sponsor a bill that would overturn SB 90, which requires local law enforcement to report suspected illegal immigrants to immigration officials except during minor traffic stops and domestic violence cases. They also may attack the bill through a lawsuit, she said.

kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2361

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