ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION August 15, 2006
Congress brings debate on illegals to Gainesville At the federal courthouse in downtown Gainesville, not far from poultry plants filled with immigrant workers, Georgia Republican congressmen on Monday gathered evidence on the many ways the nation's immigration system is broken. The House Republicans focused much of their criticism on the U.S. Senate's illegal immigration bill that they say would allow immigrant guest workers to be paid more than Americans doing the same job. U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.) described the bill as the worst he has seen in 12 years of Congress. "And you can rest assured it will not become law," Norwood said to applause from the largely supportive crowd of about 100 at the Gainesville courthouse. The House and Senate are deadlocked over differing solutions to illegal immigration and have not moved toward a compromise. The House version favors tougher enforcement of immigration laws; the Senate would allow a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the lone Democrat at Monday's hearing, said lawmakers should be trying to hash out their differences in conference committee. She also accused the Bush administration of scaling back on money for workplace immigration enforcement even as it tried to appear tough on the issue. Democrats have dismissed the field hearings as little more than election-year theater. The congressional subcommittee picked Gainesville because the impact of immigration has been obvious. The Hispanic population in Hall County, where Gainesville is the county seat, has grown from 4,558 in 1990 to 41,090 in 2005 and represents about 25 percent of the county's population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics have come to Hall County for jobs in chicken processing and construction, said Dave Anderson, editor of a 17-year-old bilingual newspaper, Mexico Lindo. "This is where it all started," Anderson said. "This is the poultry capital of the world." Immigrants have extended families in Gainesville, where they enjoy stores that cater to them and a growing transportation system, too, Anderson said. Before Monday's hearing, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials held a news conference down the street, calling for support for the Senate's version of an immigration reform bill. The Republican hearing is "really a sham on voters. It's smoke and mirrors and a delay on national policy," said Jerry Gonzalez, association's executive director. The hearing and news conference touched on aspects of the national debate over immigration that are playing out on the streets of Gainesville. Faye Bush, a Gainesville resident since 1948, worked about 30 years in a chicken processing plant, plucking chickens and cutting necks. "It was hard work back then. You didn't have the machinery like you do now," she said in an interview. African-Americans used to dominate the poultry work force in the 1950s and 1960s, but now the work is done mostly by Hispanic immigrants, she said. Still, Bush doesn't believe illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Gainesville's black community or lowering wages. "Some of the jobs they have, people don't want to do them anymore," Bush said. Down the street from her small house a truck full of live chickens passes by, feathers drifting in the air behind. At the Burger King nearby, plumber Terry Humphrey stops in for a quick dinner. He says there are "too many illegals" in town. Illegal immigration has affected the plumbing business, Humphrey says, because licensed plumbers use illegal immigrants as subcontractors. "They're putting a lot of people out of business," he said. "I got nothing against them, as long as they come the right way." Across town, at the Flor de Jalisco #2 grocery store, cowboy hats and Western boots are on display and a money transfer business draws a line of customers. Jorge Zamora is an illegal immigrant who works landscaping. Zamora says he earns $10 per hour because he has a driver's license, but illegal immigrants without a license earn $9. Americans earn $12 per hour because they have licenses and speak English, Zamora said. "But the Mexican works harder," Zamora said. Monday's hearing was designed to focus on the wage issue. Supporters of the Senate's proposal to extend the prevailing union wage to immigrants say such a standard would prevent employers from advertising jobs at artificially low wages with the intent of attracting cheap labor. Critics say many Americans are paid below prevailing wage, which might mean they are paid less than guest workers from other countries. But the hearing frequently veered off into familiar disagreements over whether illegal immigrants add value to the American economy or are draining tax dollars through government services, like health care. Phil Kent, of Americans for Immigration Control, called illegal immigrants "wage thieves" taking jobs from low-income whites and African-Americans, as well as teenagers seeking entry level jobs. Cobb County activist D.A. King, who lobbied for Georgia's own tough immigration bill that passed in the state Legislature earlier this year, accused the Senate of failing to protect American workers. "Why is it that a nation that has put a man on the moon ... cannot secure its borders?" he asked.
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