Honorable Glenn Richardson
Speaker, Georgia House of Representatives
Subject: Opposition to HR-256
Honorable Glenn Richardson:
We are writing to you as a collective of Latino organizations.
With this letter, we express our opposition to HR-256 and other
anti-immigrant legislation. Thank you for not making HR-256 a
priority this legislative session; however, we are concerned about
it for the 2006 legislative session. We do not condone illegal
activity of any sort; however, as President Bush has recognized, our
immigration system needs serious reform and repair. We strongly
believe these types of state initiatives and proposals are based on
rhetoric and are not in the best interests of our state or our
nation.
Federal immigration policy is broken. President Bush and
Governor Perdue have acknowledged as much. We must work towards
comprehensive immigration reform that addresses national security,
meets the demands of labor, and protects the rights and dignity of
the immigrant workers and their families. The solution lies at
the federal level. We must urge the U.S. Congress to work with
President Bush on a national solution; piecemeal attempts at the
state level will only hurt Georgia.
Immigrants and the Latino community are an integral part of
the continued development and positive growth we have witnessed in
Georgia. Our state has been ranked 4th most popular state for
newly arrived Latinos in the 1990's. In Georgia, Latinos account for
12% of all births. Reasons for the attraction to our state are
prevalent in Georgia's values and include: hard work, family,
economic opportunity. HR-256 sends the wrong message about Georgia
and what Georgia truly stands for.
Many of Georgia's industries, such as construction,
agriculture, poultry, textile, landscaping and hospitality, rely
heavily on immigrant labor. Georgia cannot afford to lose any
ground to other surrounding states by passing harsh anti-immigrant
legislation that will damage Georgia's economy and countless
businesses. The Latino community has a buying power of $10.9 billion
and fuels the economy in many areas of our state. Latino immigrants
spend over 90% of their earnings in the local economies. Latino
customers are the bread and butter to many small businesses in
Georgia. What our state needs is a federal solution in order to
continue economic recovery and build a better Georgia for us all.
Furthermore, HR-256 takes an unprecedented step in targeting
children in the K-12 public education. The U.S. Supreme Court has
held similar legislation to be unconstitutional. Not only is this
effort unconstitutional but it also is contrary to the best
interests of our state and nation. What has driven the United States
of America and every industrialized nation to prosperity has been an
educated population. It is the proven foundation for economic,
social and political strength. Education is essential for our nation
and our state to move forward and become more competitive in this
global economy. HR-256 would work against this strong American
value of educating our people by denying access to innocent
children.
Invoking local law enforcement officials to cooperate fully
with immigration authorities would make us less safe. If HR-256
becomes law, immigrant communities will interact less with law
enforcement officials. This would prevent our police from providing
better security and public safety for all of us because of the lack
of trust by one segment of the population. In these times of
heightened national security and concern for terrorist attacks, we
cannot afford to have a segment of our population isolated from
contact with our first responders in case of emergencies.
Most undocumented immigrants do not have access to federal
healthcare benefits. Healthcare is an issue that is under
serious strain in general, not because of the immigrant population,
but because of lack of access to affordable quality healthcare for
anyone. Georgia and our nation face a healthcare crisis despite the
immigrant population, not because of it.
HR-256 will hurt Georgia's opportunity of securing the Free
Trade Area of the America's Secretariat. With a projected
economic impact of $500 million annually to the state, this is an
international competition that Atlanta and Georgia cannot afford to
lose. The entire Western Hemisphere will be looking at our city and
evaluating the labor pool, quality of life and services that it can
provide for foreign economic investors. Georgia must send a strong
message of wanting to conduct business with our Latin American
countries. HR-256 flies against these efforts by being very
anti-immigrant.
These are the reasons we stand together to speak against HR-256.
Federal immigration policy is broken and we need common sense
approach to achieve a solution. State efforts to separately curtail
immigration have not worked in the past and will not work in our
future. Let us work with our U.S. Congress to move forward to a
national solution rather than harming Georgia. HR-256 is harmful to
Georgia's economy and will adversely affect many industries and
businesses. We urge you to oppose HR-256 and work with President
Bush on developing a national solution on immigration.
Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Lily Winsaft, President
Association of Colombian
Professionals in Atlanta (ACOLPA)
770-640-7317 ext. 23/
lwinsaft@bellsouth.net / Atlanta
Members: 100, Mailing List:
2,000
Erik Voss, Founder & Executive Director
Brazil
Atlanta
404-457-5901 / erik@BrazilAtlanta.com /
Atlanta
Mailing List: 2,500 +
Adelina C. Nicholls, President
Coordinating Council of
Latino Community Leaders
770.402.7986 / adelinan@aol.com /
Atlanta
Members: 100, Mailing List 250
Venus Gines, President
Dia de la Mujer Latina,
Inc.
1630 Pleasant Hill Rd. Ste 180-326, Duluth, Georgia,
30096, PH: 770-717-0021
Maria Rey, President
Dialogo Latino,
Inc.
404-580-3863/ stellamar@aol.com/ Atlanta
Melissa Rincon, President
Georgia Association of Latin
American Journalists (GALAJ)
info@galaj.org /
Atlanta
Members: 54, Mailing List: 100+
Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director
Georgia Association of
Latino Elected Officials (GALEO)
404.745.2580 /
jerry@galeo.org / Atlanta
Members: 250, Mailing List: 4,000
Priscilla Nieves, President
Georgia Hispanic Network, Inc.
(GHNet)
770-633-3677 / info@georgiahispanicnetwork.org /
Atlanta
Members: 371, Mailing List: 3,054
Cristina Franco, Director
Georgia Interpreters and
Translators Program
(404) 259-0004 / FrancoCourts@aol.com /
Atlanta
Mailing List: 300+
Kazuma Sonoda, Jr., President
Georgia Hispanic Bar
Association
404-614-304 Ext. 224 / ksonoda@fccd.com /
Atlanta
Membership: 60, Mailing List: 120+
Cecilia Galvis, President
Hispanic Health Coalition of
Georgia, Inc.
404-880-3723 / Atlanta
Members: 69, Mailing
List: 165
Erik Voss, Founder & President
The International
Center
404-457-5901 / erik@ICAtlanta.org / Atlanta
Mailing
List: 6,000 +
Ted Meisner, Director
La Ermita - The Hermitage, Inc.,
A Hispanic spiritual and social works outreach.
478-746-9659
/ director@laermita.org / Macon
Members: 65, Mailing List: 105,
Contacts: 600 +
Roberta Warmack, President
Latinos for Education and
Justice Organization, Inc.
(706) 625-0658 /
latinosforeducat@bellsouth.net / Calhoun
Dr. E. Gonzalez, President & Manuel Mendoza, Executive
Director
Latinos United of Carroll County
(LUCC)
770-214-0101/ admin@lucc.org / Carrollton
Beatriz Gasiba, President
Mexican American Business Chamber
(MABC)
770-441-7581/ bgasiba@mexicanchamber.org /
Chamblee
Members: 1,000, Mailing List: 1,500
Consuelo Luna, Executive Director
Mexican Center of Atlanta
(MCA)
(770) 416-0969 / mexictr@bellsouth.net / Norcross
Liany Arroyo
National Council of La Raza
(NCLR)
404-658-1711 / larroyo@nclr.org / Atlanta
Rev. Fabio Sotelo-Peña
Our Lady of the American Catholic
Mission
770.454.8437 ext. 25/ catholicmission@bellsouth.net /
Doraville
Members: 1200, Mailing List: 4,000
Carmen Vega, President
People of the Road
Coalition
404-213-3879 / cvega@edisongroup.com /
Macon
Members: 70, Mailing List: 100
Jorge Pajares, President
Peruvian-American Association of
Georgia
404 3995193 / jpajares@asociacionperuana-
georgia.info / Atlanta
Members: 219
Sonya Gomez, Chair
Puerto Ricans for Education,
Empowerment, and Advocacy (PREEA)
678.778.0882 /
Sonya_M_Gomez@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us / Atlanta
Members: 15, Mailing
List: 50+
Dan Vargas, Chair
Roswell Intercultural Alliance
770
216 2830 / dvargas@vargasandamigos.com / Roswell
Members: 8,
Mailing List: 100
Andrea Cruz, Director/Co-founder
Southeast Communities
Project
(912) 526-5451/ southeastgeorgia@bellsouth.net /
Lyons
Diana Orrego-Moore, President
Society of Hispanic
Professional Engineers- Georgia Professional Chapter
(SHPEGA)
404-840-3416 / dorrego@shpega.org /
Atlanta
Members: 40, Mailing List: 200+
CC:
Governor Sonny Perdue
Lt. Governor Mark
Taylor
President of the Senate, Senator Eric Johnson
U.S. Congressional Delegation for Georgia
House Interstate Cooperation Committee
Rep. Ronald L. Forster (R-Ringold) Dist. 3, Committee Chairman;
Rep. Steve Davis (R-McDonough) Dist. 109, Committee Vice-Chairman;
Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta) Dist. 32, Committee Secretary; Rep.
Kathy Ashe (D-Atl) Dist. 56; Rep. Virgil Fludd (D- Fayetteville)
Dist. 66
Rep. Roger Williams (HD-4), lead sponsor of HR-256; Rep. Bobby
Franklin (HD-43), co-sponsor of HR-256; Rep. Scott Martin (HD-2),
co-sponsor of HR-256; Rep. Jeannette Jamieson (HD-28), co-sponsor of
HR- 256
State House of Representatives
State Senate
