Rosa Rosales (photo)
National LULAC President
Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is saddened and outraged by the escalating immigration raids that have left towns in Georgia homogenized and abandoned after federal agents began rounding up undocumented workers the past several weeks.
News accounts have estimated that over 120 undocumented workers have been arrested and taken into custody while more Latinos are being targeted around Forsyth County .
In Stillmore alone, a town of over 1000 people, homes have been left abandoned, streets emptied, and stores closed, as raids and arrests have left Latino immigrants and citizens frightened and families separated.
The Georgia raids come as a result of critical comments made by Gov. Sonny Perdue when he irrationally accused all illegal immigrants as “heading to the welfare office on Monday and casting a vote on Tuesday,” as well as proceeding to defend the Georgia Secure ID cards by evoking fear in his linking of undocumented workers to terrorists.
"Fraudulent IDs are a serious threat to homeland security. At least seven of the 9/11 highjackers obtained genuine Virginia identity documents through fraud."
LULAC National President Rosa Rosales has sent a letter to the Governor’s office expressing LULAC’s displeasure and disappointment, as well as requesting an apology to the Georgian Latino community.
“Governor Perdue’s shameful comparisons to the attacks of 9/11 with the Georgia Latino immigrant community are completely appalling and unacceptable,” said Rosa Rosales.
“Immigrant bashing should not be used to divide communities or used as a political tool to win over the electorate. We can clearly see the effects of what deporting illegal immigrants would look like, as is the case in Stillmore. We ask that the Governor retract his comments immediately.”
The League of the United Latin American Citizen (www.lulac.org) is the oldest and largest Latino membership based civil rights organization in the United States . It advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.
I was probably one of the few Democrats to watch the ABC TV mini-series "The Road to 9/11." One of the things I found especially interesting was the fact that the only potential middle-eastern terrorist caught at the United States border prior to 9/11 was coming from Canada, not from Mexico, and that was almost by accident.
ReplyDeleteNow, 5 years after 9/11, the U.S.- Canadian border is poorly patrolled, especially when compared to the U.S. border with Mexico. Is that fair? Is that prudent? Oh, yes, G.W. Bush is adverse to inconveniencing our for-the-most-part Anglo-saxoneee neighbors to the north, but not those neighbors to the south. After all, those folks to the south of the U.S., for the most part, have swarthy complexions, not unlike those of the middle east. By that definition, they must automatically be potential terrorists, right?
U.S. immigration policy at the present time is definately racist! Without immigration policy parity between immigrants (or visitors) from Canada and those from Mexico, it cannot be any other way!