STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More Local news

• Richard White: Members will have to pay extra for losses
• Collier County Police Briefs: July 5, 2008
• In a tough year, Naples fireworks brightened the night for 20,000

Share and Enjoy [?]

May Day came and went in Southwest Florida.

But none of the area’s major immigration advocacy groups took part in Thursday’s nationwide protests.

Why?

According to some, area immigrants have other things weighing more heavily on their minds.

“It’s a hard economic time,” said Tirso Moreno, general coordinator for the Farmworker Association of Florida.

Even though keeping food on the table with the economic downturn is part of the reason, Moreno said, fear and the scarceness of resources have also resulted in many people (both legal and illegal) leaving the state.

“There is a lot of fear, a lot of dread (in the migrant community),” said Moreno, adding that threats against the farmworker rights group have escalated. “This state is not making migrants feel welcome.”

That was evident during the 2008 Florida legislative session, Moreno said.

“We’ve been on the defensive,” he said.

Several pieces of legislation addressing illegal immigrants were proposed during the session, including a bill that would have paid to deport jailed illegal immigrants and another requiring public employers and contractors to check employees’ immigration status.

Meanwhile, Collier County Commissioner Fred Coyle said the lack of any activity or marches on May Day spoke for itself.

“I make, that it’s responsible conduct by those (illegal immigrants) here in Collier County,” Coyle said. “I think it’s outrageous that people that break the law and come into the country illegally have a right to do that.”

Coyle, who has been outspoken on his stance on illegal immigration, said the marches create a sense of entitlement that is absurd.

“There is no reason for anyone to organize a protest, because they themselves broke the laws of the United States,” said Coyle, who added that he was glad that confrontations with the government were avoided. “We would be immediately thrown in prison if we broke the same laws. I just think that it’s absurd.”

National Council of La Raza’s director of immigration and national campaign Clarissa Martinez disagreed with Coyle, but admitted that there has been an effort to characterize the marches, and this year’s lack of participation, in one way or another.

“Participating in a peaceful march is one of the most cherished avenues of exercising your rights,” said Martinez.

The biggest mistake people make, she said, is assuming that because there was a lower turnout for the marches that the effort has failed.

“That is completely wrong,” said Martinez, adding that efforts to increase participation are changing and expanding. “There are some anti-immigrant groups that say ‘It shows that we won.’ A lot of the anti-immigrant groups, as loud as they can be, represent a small percentage of the country.”

Another misconception that’s being battled, said Martinez, is that all the folks participating in the marches, or a lot of the related activities, are undocumented.

Although many people see the term immigrant and Hispanic as interchangeable, they are not, she said.

“It’s important to understand that it’s not just the undocumented,” said Martinez. “They include legal residents and citizens. There is a lot at stake in this issue.”

America’s Voice executive director Frank Sharry agreed, adding that being on the defensive does not mean that the spirit of the marches has died.

“I’m not a rally organizer, but what I do know is that there is an unprecedented voter mobilization effort being developed for this election, targeted at immigrants,” said Sharry, in an interview Friday.

He added that many of the key organizations that were involved with the marches, within the past two years, have instead refocused their main efforts on encouraging immigrants to become citizens and new citizens to become voters.

“The most important rally will be on Election Day,” Sharry said, whose center is dedicated to immigration reform. “I’ve heard, we tried that (marching) before and it didn’t work.”

With 80 percent of Latino’s in the U.S. being legal, Martinez said, the immigration debate has resulted in a renewed interest in the community to vote and has led to big efforts across the country to encourage people to becoming citizens and then voters.

As for the “Today we march, tomorrow we vote” painted on many signs during the marches, Martinez said, it has become a broad community slogan.

“They are shifting to make sure people are prepared, equipped and informed to vote,” said Martinez, adding that it was ludicrous to think that only the undocumented would care about immigration reform.

And Martinez said the majority of Americans really do want to get a solution on the immigration issue.

“By having more eligible immigrants acting in the electoral process, we are building a greater constituency,” said Martinez.

In spite of his strong view on illegal immigrants, Coyle said, he is in favor of immigration reform.

“I believe the government should streamline the process for those that want to come here to work,” he said. “But I don’t believe in giving blanket amnesty to people that have broke our laws. Breaking our laws can never be an acceptable path to citizenship in the United States.”