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Letter: Two sides to debate

Posted on April 10, 2008 by Staff

Colin Austin is absolutely correct when he states that “Fear is on the rise in North Carolina”. I believe, however, that he has focused on only one aspect of the fear.

He has ignored the fear of a mother in Burlington who must send her children to a school where gang violence is steadily increasing, violence that did not exist prior to the influx of illegal immigrants to the area.

He has ignored the fear of local minority tradesmen who see their businesses floundering because of the influx of illegal workers who will work for cash paid under the table.

He has ignored the fear of drivers in the rural areas who believe that most illegal immigrants have no driver’s licenses or auto insurance, or Latinos comprise a higher percentage of DWI arrests than their proportion of the population.

He has ignored the fear of property owners who see their taxes going up, in part to provide services for a segment of the population that appears to be uninterested in participating in the community as a whole, but seems content to segregate themselves from their neighbors.

Are these fears justified?  Maybe, maybe not. The fact is undeniable however, that they do exist, whether warrented or not, and until a meaningful way is found to put those fears to rest, perhaps through education, dialog or some other means, then local citizens in many parts of North Carolina will encourage their local law enforcement agencies to join the ICE program.     Local governments will not take a stand against becoming “Immigration police” unless they have the backing of the general population, and that is not looking very likely in most parts of the state unless the citizens cease to have these concerns about illegal immigrants. It is not just local officials who are “frustrated by the broken national immigration system”, it is increasing numbers of regular citizens in North Carolina.

Forums like El Foro Latino are excellent ways to discuss these issues within the Latino community, but unless there is conversation with and outreach to the non-Latino community, the problems are not going to go away. Perhaps the Orange County Human Relations Commission might be a logical entity to try to address this problem, if they can remember that there are two sides to this important issue.

—Forest Hazel
Mebane

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