Hon. Fernando Gonzalez � MexicanConsulate in Kansas City

The Mexican government takes very seriously this problem in this country. In this country where Mexico has shown its commitment by opening consular offices �.we have here 45 consulates; no other country has that many.

We consider that the enemy to beat is ignorance. For one part, the victims don�t know their rights. For another one, the authorities are not fully aware of their human rights. You have to respect what you don�t know.

In the first point � Mexico has in each consulate a particular department that addresses the issue of the rights of the Mexican community � each consulate implements a series of programs that goes from the cultural health� all the programs include every aspect necessary in order to educate our people.

In support of our necessity to defend better their rights, the Mexican constitution was amended in 1998, so that those Mexicans who acquire another nationality are still considered Mexicans, permanently (dual citizenship).

There are currently a couple of important groups. One is a bi-national commission that is composed by high-level officers in both countries. The other one that was created with discussions of the bi-national commission is called mechanism of consultation.

In these discussions, we address particular cases reported by the consulates. In each meeting, the Mexican delegation always makes a point that human rights and dignity of the Mexicans have to be observed regardless of migratory status.

The people have to be educated about the obligations that international law imposes � particularly the consular relation of 1963. Since this is a country where statistics are very important, there is one that will give you an idea that is just the tip of the iceberg � of the activity of the Mexican consulates, some of the violations in different areas, in human rights it was reported 332 last year in the United States. In the rest of the world it was10. In the criminal area, there were reported 13,664 by the Mexican consulates in the US; from the consulates in the rest of the world, 381. In the migratory field, we had 37,230; the rest, 592. On the labor topic:1,769. The rest of the world: 400. These are only a few of the figures and we have many more, but I think this is more than enough to give you an idea of what the Mexican consulates do in this country. I will be here if you have concrete questions about these activities.

Sylvia Lazos: I think the invitation was for some of you who have observed what you think are human rights violations in Neosho, Joplin, etc. � I think the honorable Fernando Gonzalez was saying �Please come talk to me.�

Anna Williams Shavers, University of Nebraska

People always ask if there is immigration in Nebraska; obviously there is �

The other question I always get is why I, as an African-American, have an interest in immigration. I grew up in the South during segregation; discrimination was a black and white issue. It wasn�t till I left the Deep South and met people from other parts of the world that I grew to appreciate the diversity in people. I really enjoy meeting other people and trying to learn more about where they come from.

Before Nebraska, she came from Salt Lake City, where the large immigrant community was doing pretty well� Then on 11 there was the attack and things began to change. They began rounding up many people who had been living a decent life. Mostly they were undocumented. The fear was that these people pose a danger. There was a fear they would be used in connection with a terrorist attack; that they would put the bomb on the airplane or �I�m going to turn you into immigration.��

[These immigrants] believe these arrests were racially motivated: We have secured the security of this country, but at what price? We have a safe and secure airport, but at what cost?

These are people who were seeking part of their American dream � each of them had to lie and cheat multiple occasions. You have to draw the line in the sand. It�s one thing to lie on an application to get a job at a restaurant; but if you�re going to have a job relating to public safety, or �Here�s $5 �10,000 in cash�.�, that�s another issue.

The primary methods of immigration to the U.S. are Family and Employment.

In family-based immigration, you are limited by types of relationships (not all kinds of family relationships count). In employment-based immigration, you are limited by types of employment (some types of employment count more than others). You are also limited by country of nationality � some countries are considered �undesirable.�

There�s a recognition now of the need for action. Immigrants are finding second-tier cities hospitable, with affordable homes, decent public schools, and job opportunities. There are now an estimated 4.2 million Latinos in the Midwest, and included in those numbers are the people who are considered documented.

I think there are five different ways we need to focus on trying to get things changed.

• Legalization � With NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, there were no guest workers provisions. In the summer of 2001, Mexican President Vicente Fox was proposing an amnesty; they said this was a great proposal, and in the next few years we would have a significant change. It looked like they were going to embark on this change. Congress cheered; it looked like we were going to have legislation at any moment � then all of a sudden, we have 9/11.

Factors relevant to immigration reforms:

• legalization � issues of family reunification were related � some are here with legal status but have relatives who are undocumented.
• The push for immigration reform lost momentum after Sept. 11. There were quotes from organizations that traditionally supported immigration reform and began to back away. Additionally, the economy went bad and people were losing jobs and they said it�s because of immigration.
• One proposal in Congress: if a person has been here as of Dec. 1, 2000, and shows they had employment or a family relationship they could become legalized. It�s hard to say what will happen; there�s still some anti-immigrant sentiment.
• With NAFTA, there was supposed to be the free movement of people back and forth across the border, but that�s not happened. It�s primarily high-level business people engaged in trade who are going back and forth; ordinary people don�t benefit from NAFTA.
• There�s been a depopulation of rural Mexico resulting from NAFTA as the rural agriculturally based economy has collapsed.

One of the biggest problems since the War on Terrorism began has been the USA Patriot Act. Look what�s happened in one year. Congress rushed to enact laws and didn�t give enough attention to the implications. Even since that one-year mark, the USA Patriot Act II has been enacted with even more onerous provisions. Now not only are we trying to get amnesty enacted; we have to watch for more onerous provisions that are about to pass.

There are some tensions between the various aspects of what�s being discussed: There�s the mental health panel, about getting health for the individual; there�s the immigration law panel about getting help for domestic abuse victims; this also might result in the separation of families and could put people in a very difficult situation.

My proposal is that the guest worker provisions, increasing the numbers of people coming in with the guest worker permit. There would be more ease of access, and it would count toward achieving permanent residency or citizenship.

We need to include more worker protection programs such as what the consultant � labor laws would do, with respect to guest workers as well as permanent workers.

What happens to all the Social Security benefits accrued by the individuals? We need to address this as well.

Sylvia: Michele Waslin, legislative analyst with the National Council on La Raza, has been engaged in hand to hand combat, talking to the Bush administration and Hispanic Congressional Caucus, with proposals coming to the floor even as we speak.

Michele Waslin:

I am so honored to be here with you. I can�t wait to go back to Washington, D.C. and tell my colleagues about tall the amazing work that you all are doing. It�s clear that you guys really get it.

(Please read Michele Waslin's full presentation.)

ACACACA

 

 

Leigh Herbst � assistant professor, University of Nebraska

 

Conducted a study of police-Latino relations in Central Missouri based in 3 communities � Sedalia, Knob Noster and Warrensburg. The purpose of the study was to look at rural communities. Most research looks at major police departments, such as St. Louis and Kansas City, so this is one of the first to look at the rural situation. Here�s what she found:

 

Barriers to police-Latino relations

 

• cultural barriers
• language barriers
• immigration status.

 

Rural policing � Small departments don�t have the resources this department (Kansas City) has, and there is a general fear among residents in the smaller communities, for Latinos to move into these communities. Because officers that work in these communities may not have proper training, they may be subject to unequal treatment.

 

Research questions:

 

• What local law enforcement departments were actually doing in response to the influx in the Latino population.
• How they perceive the relationship between themselves and the Latino population.

 

Methodology data:

 

Police and sheriff�s departments � I used to go down and try to do basic paperwork for non-English speaking Latinos � I was afraid that most other officers who were arresting Latinos didn�t know Spanish � I looked at 5 major sources of documentation.

• Field observations
• Interviewed all patrol officers
• Interviewed community government leaders
• Interviewed white and Latino residents

 

Barriers

 

No. 1 barrier � as far as patrol officers go � if they saw somebody drive by who committed the violation and could tell they were of Hispanic descent, they were afraid they wouldn�t be able to communicate. They�d say, �I�m not going to hassle them � I can�t even say hola.�

 

If they arrested an English-speaking person for a DWI, it would take about 2 hours. With a Spanish speaker, it takes 6 hours, by the time you get a translator down there � they didn�t want to mess with it.

 

Officers had heard at some training they attended, that the INS would never respond to someone who had been arrested if (a) He hadn�t committed one of certain very serious crimes (b) a town had to have like 30 confirmed undocumented Latinos for the INS to respond.

 

When I talk about nature of contacts, generally the met through vehicle stops or minor in possession or drinking alcohol in public, or they might have a fake ID. All contacts of Latinos are for law enforcement violations. If you are only contacting Latinos for law enforcement situations, there�s no room to have a positive community interaction. There�s nothing like community policing.

 

Many people in the Latino community believed Latino residents should not contact police, because they might call the INS or have the ability to arrest them.

 

We do see there are in these communities a few things these law enforcement agents are doing to meet the needs of community; there are some types of interpreter assistants. Some of these departments had bilingual materials. Some officers had cultural diversity training programs.

 

The study identified areas of needed improvement �

1. Bilingual and bicultural officers are very few and far in between. If you�re bilingual and bicultural, you get paid a heck of a lot more, so it might be more cost-effective to do intensive language training for certain officers, and to go out into the community and work with Latinos.
2. More bilingual material.
3. Better distribution of resources. In my opinion too much funding is going to places that have bicultural programs, and we�re missing out on these rural communities.
4. Law enforcement needs to tell the Latino community, This is when we are interested in immigration policy and this is where we are not. For example, in Texas: We don�t care about immigration status; we need your help. If you will help us out, we will help you out. We won�t ever ask about immigration status again unless it�s someone who�s committed a major crime. Otherwise - in addition to mistrust of government, there�s intensification of mistrust for law enforcement. If Latinos know more enforcement is happening, they�re not going to call the police. For rural, white, homogenous communities, there�s increased pressure on law enforcement to do something. Several residents say Latinos cannot integrate because white and black residents won�t let them integrate. There�s too much pressure to �do something about those Mexicans.�
5. Racial profiling and discrimination. That�s really going to be a big issue as we continue to go down this road, and we�re concerned about homeland security.

 

In this study I didn�t find any major conflict between Latinos and the police. There�s confusion and mistrust because of the language barriers and the nature of contacts, because most law enforcement contacts in the Latino community were police contacts. I think that�s a huge challenge we�re facing.

�

 

Marvin Singleton, former Missouri state senator

 

In America we speak English by 1 vote. The Dutch and English populated the new colony, and they said we don�t understand each other. They voted and by one vote we spoke English instead of German. If in 1960 Nixon had gotten one more vote he would have won the election. And we all know what happened in 2000.

 

If I had lost one vote per precinct in my district, I would never have been a state senator. People ask me, Does the Latino vote count? My answer is no � it only counts if you vote, and then the answer is yes.

 

Government really should work for us; we should never work for the government. I thought the federal government should only do two things: One is the common defense and one is mail service.

 

If you ask school children five things that the federal government does that state government does not do � if you say, name me one thing we do not affect by law or by action of the government, just think about the taxes � now the government tells you how to be born and under what conditions you can die. We even get into your bedroom, we regulate the water you drink and the air quality you breathe.

 

 

Jut look at the USA Patriot Act, if you�re concerned about privacy and civil liberties, you need to be concerned about how many people go vote.

 

I would leave you with a message. Organize for your communities and your barrios and your families a good education. Other communities do; the churches, the hospitals, the political parties, other ethnic groups, and they�ve been very successful. Be patriotic and vote. If you think the Latino vote doesn�t count in Missouri, ask yourself why. You hold the key � your family, your community, all hold the key. Hopefully later this afternoon we�ll discuss how to do that.