By JOHN NORTH

Public pressure needs to be put on elected officials to reform laws to improve the plight of undocumented immigrants in the United States, the two keynote speakers at a program titled “Immigration: Myths and Realities” said last Wednesday night in Asheville.

About 75 people attended the gathering, the first event sponsored by the newly organized Mountain Area Interfaith Forum, at Beth Israel Synagogue.

In her address, local Hispanic leader Ada Volkmer lamented the increasing crackdowns on undocumented immigrants by law-enforcement officials, and that both the local incumbent congressman and his challenger are using, as part of their strategy, campaign platforms that would make life tougher for these people.

Meanwhile, immigration-law specialist Gerry Chapman also voiced the need for those who are concerned about the dire situation of many undocumented immigrants to express their views vigorously — and often — to legislators.

In poking fun at anti-immigrant sentiment, Chapman mimicked someone muttering, “‘These illegals will come in here and they’ll be taking our women!’”

To the contrary, the attorney said, undocumented workers make a major positive contribution to the U.S. economy, to the point that “I often feel we don’t deserve them. These people are busting their butts ... They just happen to be brown-skinned” and journey to the U.S. from south of the border.

The MAIF bills itself as “a cooperative effort of members of various faiths and faith institutions in the mountains of Western North Carolina” dedicated “to applying our religious and ethical imperatives to making a better world and to foster deeper knowledge and appreciation of each others’ traditions.”

Besides the keynote addresses, the 2.5-hour session, which ran nearly an hour later than scheduled, featured five brief  presentations by MAIF members. (A separate story on the five shorter talks appears on Page 7.) The forum was capped by a question-and-answer session. (A separate story on the Q&A appears on Page 3.)

Opening the program was Rob Cabelli, Beth Israel rabbi and MAIF member, who noted that the MAIF is five or six months old and the night’s forum was intended to be “more action-oriented” than previous sessions.

In noting that one of the missions of the MAIF is to learn the ways of different cultures, he triggered laughter from the audience when quipped that, “in starting 15 minutes late, I am intoducing you to a Jewish tradition — we almost always start everything 15 minutes late!”

Turning serious, Cabelli said, “There is, perhaps, no more burning issue” in the United States now than that of immigration. He added that it is not only a major domestic issue, but one with which every country in the world is grappling.

The first of the keynoters to speak, Volkmer, who is coordinator of the Coalicion de Organizaciones Latino-Americanas in Asheville, noted that COLA works with the area’s community centers, which in turn work directly with immigrants.

In addition to her duties with COLA in striving to help immigrants, Volkmer said she the other component of her work is to address the public about immigrant concerns.

She then ran a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation that told the stories, in their own words, of three immigrants in the region.
Then Volkmer asked the audience to to summarize some points on what made the immigrants proud. These included hard work, faith, culture, education, honesty, loyalty, openness to others and a desire to make a contribution to the U.S.

Regarding challenges cited by the immigrants, the audience noted the following: language, rejection, documentation, licenses, stereotypes, education and being bicultural, wherein one is not accepted by either one’s native Hispanic culture or mainstream U.S. culture.

Volkmer asked the crowd if the joys and values of the immigrants in their presentation were “so different from that of our ancestors?” No, answered various audience members.

However, she added, “The challenges might be a little different” from those of mainstream Americans. For instance, Volkmer cited 287-G, a clause in a 1996 immigration law that says the federal government can train and deputize local police officers to function as immigration officers.

In North Carolina, “if you are pulled over in Alamance County (around Burlington), the officer may ask about your immigration status,” Volkmer said in pointing to a locale that especially is enforcing 287-G in the state.

“I’m originally from Mexico,” she said as she asked the audience whether it though she would be subject to an immigration check-up.

Only if she spoke, one audience member replied, in an apparent reference to her slight Hispanic accent, implying that Volkmer appeared mainstream otherwise.

Volkmer then cited U.S. Census Bureau data indicating that the Hispanic population has skyrocketed 400 percent in North Carolina in 10 years, from 1990 to 2000.

As a result of the staggering Hispanic growth in the Tar Heel state, she said “many of the eyes of the United States are on North Carolina and how it handles” the situation.

As a result of recent legal actions, “if you’re undocumented and you live in North Carolina, you’re not able to get a driver’s license.” And, Volkmer noted, without a driver’s license, one cannot buy a car or obtain automobile insurance.

“How does this impact you?” she asked the mainly non-Hispanic audience. The answer, Volkmer said, is that some undocumented immigrants nevertheless are driving around without licenses and insurance — and they cannot attend community colleges.

In responding to her question, one older man deadpanned, “I’m Jewish and I feel guilty!”

Volkmer joined the audience at laughing with the man about his reference to a Jewish stereotype, but then she asked, “Who else feels guilty?”

A woman then pragmatically asserted, “If they are going to drive without a driver’s license and insurance, (then) I’d be better off if they had a driver’s license and insurance.”

Another woman contended that, based on her observation, local police are “very anxious” to make traffic stops of Hispanics — and “I find it very offensive.”

“You find it very offensive?” Volkmer said. “Imagine living in Emma” as a Hispanic.

She lamented that Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, is seeking more border patrol and more interior enforcement and that Asheville City Councilman Carl Mumpower, who is a Republican seeking to unseat Shuler, is basing a large part of his campaign on stopping what she termed Mumpower’s contention that the U.S. is being overrun by undocumented workers.

“What can you do?” Volkmer asked, rhetorically. “I’m a fan of public opinion” — and she said that trying to change public opinion to help undocumented immigrants is crucial.

She noted that for every one telephone call she makes to state legislators in support of undocumented workers, “they receive 400 phone calls “saying they need to deport these people. There’s a 400:1 ratio.”

To that end, she said, “We need people calling politicians,” speaking in favor of undocumented immigrants. Such a group meets on the first Tuesday of every month at Nuestro Centro in West Asheville at 5:30 p.m. — “or 6 o’clock Latino time!” Volkmer quipped, prompting laughter from the audience.

Also, a group of area Hispanics and backers will be taking a bus to Raleigh in the near future to lobby legislators on causes favorable to undocumented immigrants, she said.

A male audience member asked about “misinformation out there ... What I hear is illegal immigrants are not paying taxes. And that they’re overloading the hospital system without paying — and they’re getting an education without paying.”

Volkmer responded, “This (situation) is not an easy thing. Because our health system is broken, it’s the (undocumented) immigrants’ fault. Because our schools are broken, it’s the immigrants’ fault. I see it always comes down to that level.”

The other keynoter, Chapman, began by noting that he was glad to be “in the land of the tree-huggers” — Asheville — and then asked for a show of hands of what percentage of the audience was Jewish. (Many in the audience raised their hands.)
Next, Chapman told a humorous story about God telling Moses that the good news is that he is going to part the Red Sea.

Moses then asked, “What’s the bad news?” “Moses, you get to write the environmental impact statement.” The crowd laughed heartily at Chapman’s joke.

Chapman said that, through his studies and research, he has concluded that  immigration policy has been a problem for the U.S. since dealing with the Indians in Colonial times.

Again taking a humorous tack, he told of two white men surrounded by thousands of angry Mexicans at the Alamo, prompting one to say to the other, “Are we hanging sheetrock today?” Chapman quickly noted that his joke was politically incorrect, but it illustrates the issue of who is performing much of the nation’s manual labor.

He referred to the term “essential worker,” noting that “we have a blind spot when it comes to manual labor.”

In speaking of immigration policy, Chapman added, “This whole debate is emotional — and that’s tragic.”

He said many Americans use the term “illegal aliens,” but he said that the technically correct reference is “undocumented immigrants.”

After a pause, Chapman asked the audience, “Who here thinks they’re ‘legal?’ I’m sorry to tell you — you’re documented ... You’re here legally” via documentation.

“If you wish to secure the border, create a legal means for people to come into the United States,” Chapman urged, noting that the undocumented workers who approach him are highly interested in following U.S. legal processes.

With their immigration enforcement proposals, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and Rep. Health Shuler, D-Waynesville, “are just trying to destroy (Hispanic) families,” he said.

Further, Chapman said the state’s decision to ban acceptance of undocumented immigrants from enrolling at its community colleges is the recipe for what he termed “the perfect storm.”

Specifically, he said, “You’ll have a bunch of smart (undocumented) kids who’ll get into the drug trade” to make a living.
“So what will it take?” Chapman asked.

In answering his own question, Chapman said, “Phone calls, e-mails and letters to Congress. It’ll also take votes.”

While he said he does not want to offend Dole, Chapman said the situation on state immigration rights is “a train wreck ready to happen.”

“The other thing we’ll need — we’re going to need some business-owners and carted off to jail,” he said.

As for votes, “Who likes to lose their job? Well, people in Congress don’t want to either. Right now, they’ve got a cheap and effective stump speech” by lobbying against immigrant rights.

“Until they’re more afraid of losing your vote over the lunatic vote,” nothing will change with Congress, he concluded.