Immigrant bill draws fire here

Correction May 7, 2010 — Legislation being considered in Harrisburg would require police to check a person's immigration or citizenship status only if it's suspected the person is in this country illegally, and only after that person is stopped for another reason. The story below addressed the topic.

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A bill proposed in Harrisburg, similar to a new law in Arizona, that would allow police to stop anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant is outrageous, racist and totally un-American.

Those were some of the terms used to describe House Bill 2479 as community leaders from Lancaster and as far away as Wilkes-Barre and Bethlehem met Thursday at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center to denounce the legislation.

Norman Bristol Colon, executive director of Governor's Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs, said the proposed law is a "clear way to legalize racial profiling in Pennsylvania."

Colon equated the law to "the darkest days" of Nazi Germany "where anyone could be randomly stopped and asked for their papers." America, he said, fought a war to end that practice.

"This law has no place in the United States," Colon said. "I don't oppose House Bill 2479 just because I am Latino. I oppose it as a proud American."

The new bill's prime sponsor is Republican Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County. The bill has 29 co-sponsors including Lancaster County Republican Tom Creighton of Rapho Township.

Gov. Ed Rendell has said he will veto the legislation if it is passed.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray said it's true there is a problem with illegal immigration, but said the best way to solve that problem "is not to treat everybody who falls within a certain ethnic group like they are undocumented."

He said state Rep. Mike Sturla, who represents Lancaster but was unable to attend Thursday's gathering, has vowed to fight the bill and, if it passes, to block any attempt to override Rendell's veto.

Standing beside city councilman Joe Morales, Gray asked, "Who's going to get stopped and asked for their papers? Me? Or Joe? That's what racial profiling is all about. I'm not going to get stopped or hassled."

The bill, Gray said, is "un-American, its unconstitutional, and its just unnecessary."

Morales said he "strongly" opposes the bill, and warned local legislators to vote for it at their own political peril.

"This kind of racism," he said, "this kind of harassment of people for no other reason than their skin color or last name or national origin, is something that Americans will not stand for. I will warn any legislator in this state who thinks they can even attempt to pass something like this without consequences — think twice."

Angel Jirau of the Wilkes-Barre NAACP called the bill "outrageous."

He said he has been involved in civil rights issues for 45 years, and fears that the nation has come "full circle, where people are being chastised for being different." Those things happen, he said, when the people "do not speak the outrage that we must."

Former Marine and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan Rafael Torres of Lancaster conjured up images of being hauled off to the immigration center in York County because one does not have his or her "papers."

"Have you thought about that yet?" he asked.

To police, he said, when they pull someone over to check their citizenship, they may be pulling over war veterans and retired military officers.

He said Latinos can't afford "to be complacent."

Olga Negron, executive director of the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations of the Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem, spoke of her group's opposition to the law.

"We have to do this together," she said. "We have to speak up on behalf of our people."

Opponents of the proposed legislation now take their cause on the road. Meetings similar to Lancaster's will be held in Reading, Bethlehem, Allentown and Philadelphia.

lalexander@lnpnews.com