H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°As part of a national day of action, area activists and students plan to march to the state Capitol today in a rally for immigrants' rights.
In an effort to raise public awareness for immigrants' rights, rally organizers will protest a trio of bills they view as discriminatory and unnecessary.
"There are a lot of immigrants, [and] … many of them have been forced to come without documents," rally organizer Salvador Carranza said. "But they are members of our community and are making enormous contributions nonetheless."
As contributing members and human beings, Carranza added, immigrants should not have to be assaulted by discriminatory policy, neither at the state nor federal levels.
But supporters of regulatory legislation said such measures are not meant to be unfair but are rather an issue of homeland security.
On the state level, policy supporters pointed to last month's passage of Assembly Bill 69 — a measure requiring individuals to prove legal residency before obtaining drivers' licenses — as a positive step toward protecting the nation from terrorist attacks.
"Wisconsin will no longer be one of the weak points where terrorists can obtain an ID," AB 69 author Rep. Mark Pettis, R-Hertel, said in a release. "An ID is power. It gives you many privileges in our country, from opening a bank account and renting a car to boarding a plane."
Immigrant-rights advocates, however, said AB 69 — as well as other anti-immigrant legislation yet to be approved — will hurt not only undocumented immigrants, but also society in general by damaging the nation's economy.
According to Carranza, industries like agriculture, processing, construction and food service would be severely hurt by anti-immigrant legislation.
"We need to bring [immigrants] out of the shadows of our communities so they can make even more contributions," he said.
A federal measure aiming to make all undocumented immigrants felons has already passed through the U.S. House of Representatives, and advocates hope today's rally will inform the public of its negative effects before the Senate moves to act on its companion bill.
HR 4437, Carranza said, violates America's ideals and fails to look at immigrants as real human beings.
"We need for the nation to welcome them as we have welcomed other immigrants before," he said. "This is a march not only for immigrant rights but for human rights. We cannot have a nation with two different kinds of residents — one with full rights and one with only limited rights."
The march is set to take place from 10:30 a.m. to noon beginning at Brittingham Park and ending at the Capitol, where a one-hour program will be performed from noon until 1 p.m.
According to University of Wisconsin history professor Thomas Archdeacon, the rally's success will center on how organizers present their protests.
"It cuts both ways. I think that in some ways it … can make the people sympathetic," he said, adding emphasizing immigrants' contributions will help garner public support while using "separatist rhetoric" stressing their heritage will most likely hurt the movement.
Politicians will only consider the rally a cause to reconsider policy if its participants represent a broad base of voters, Archdeacon added.
The rally's sponsoring organizations include the UW Latino Law Students Association.
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As an illegal immigrant myself, I feel that I too should be kicked out of the United States. I am unemployed and have been ever since I first arrived. I support myself and my family by illegal means. My mere presence in this country, like that of other illegal peoples, results in inappropriate use of social resources, reduces domestic wages, steals American jobs, reduces property values, and forces others to speak Spanish so illegals don’t need to learn or use English. I don’t contribute in any way, be it financially or culturally, to this country. I never pay taxes and the money I make and don’t spend at Wal-Mart, I send back to my family who haven’t yet been able to come to the US. I know first hand that the only thing illegals do is zap resources. Let’s be realistic, how are agricultural jobs like grape and tomato picking in any way contributing to America? What about nannies and babysitting? Or house cleaning and lawn maintenance? Or in construction? Or in slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants? Or what about dishwashers and busboys in restaurants or in food preparation? I sincerely doubt it. It is incredulous to think that there are American citizens who actually defend illegals and their “right” to be in this country. All I know is that the government should start building that 700 mile double fence along the border immediately. But more importantly, if more Americans really do care about the integrity of their borders, they should take it upon themselves to join patriotic groups like the Minutemen (the real heroes) who guard the American border day in and day out, and help prevent potential terrorists from crossing into this country. But it might already be too late to keep them out. Unless we start deportation programs, with Latino birthrates already sky-high, there will be no way to curb the changing face of the American populace and America will turn into a poverty-stricken wasteland. Madison, WI
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“…many of them have been forced to come without documents”
Forced by whom? They chose to break the law by entering the USA illegally. Now they want amnesty for their criminal activities which undoubtably include using false ID and tax evasion in addition to illegal entry to the USA.
“anti-immigrant legislation” should be “anti-ILLEGAL immigrant legislation”.
Isn’t saying “undocumented immigrants” the same as saying “undocumented undepositors” when referring to bank robbers?
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” We cannot have a nation with two different kinds of residents — one with full rights and one with only limited rights.”
What we REALLY can not have is a nation with two different kinds of residents — one with full rights to BREAK THE LAW and one without. Why should some people be immune from the laws applyed to previous immigrants?
“…fails to look at immigrants as real human beings.”
On the contrary, it absolutey looks at them like real human beings - only birds and other animals can migrate with no regard to the laws of the country to which they migrate.
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“According to Carranza, industries like agriculture, processing, construction and food service would be severely hurt by anti-immigrant legislation.”
What BS! Those industries would just have to employ more machinery or pay higher wages to attract legal residents to get the work done.
It’s idiotic to allow millions of uneducated, unskilled people to invade the country while keeping out the educated and skilled LAW ABIDING applicants for entry.
While the United States perversely tries to corner the market in uneducated hotel maids and tomato harvesters, other industrial democracies are reshaping their immigration policies to invite the skilled immigrants that we turn away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/opinion/10Clemons.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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Stopping the invasion requires that the incentives for illegal immigrants must be be reduced. Criminals MUST BE assaulted by discriminatory policy, both at the state and federal levels.
Law breakers must be punished even if they are human beings.
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This is why we need a fence. A big fence with troops, mines, dogs, whatever it takes to stop the invasion.
Asked whether she was afraid to parade her undocumented status in front of a massive police presence, she laughed and said: “Why? They kick us out, we’re coming back tomorrow.”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IMMIGRATION_PROTESTS?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Illegal immigrants are ILLEGAL. They are criminals, just like Ted Kaczynski (sp?), Timothy McVeigh, and Osama Bin Laden. Don’t deport them, incarcerate them in our jails and prisons. At least that will reduce the percentage of blacks incarcerated so that is no longer an issue.
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At least we are being invaded by catholic work-a-holics instead of jihadis freeloaders like Europe has to deal with.
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Isn’t speeding illegal? How about instead of police writing speeding tickets, we just deport people instead? How many of us drank alcohol before we turned 21, or even 18? How many of us smoke pot or do other drugs? And hell, half our congresspeople are under investigation for corruption.
Before we start foaming at the mouth with racism to deport illegal immigrants who actually help our economy, maybe we should first take a look at the natives who hurt us.
And this totally ignores the reasons they’re labelled as “illegal” in the first place, illegality is just a tool of oppression. Remember when it was illegal for minorities (who had lived in this country for several hundred years) to even sit on a bus or use the same toilets of white folks? Or when it was illegal for women to vote?
And let us also not forget that when our own ancestors came here, they mostly didn’t speak english, they worked low-wage jobs. For a country of immigrants to deny freedom to immigrants is just pathetic and embarassing. Then again, bigotry towards poor immigrants is nothing new—when my Irish ancestors came here 130 years ago to escape poverty and my German family came here to escape political persecution, they were treated with the same disrespect and discrimination that we are now directing at our Latin@ brothers and sisters.
It’s even more disgraceful when taking into account that many of these wretched of the earth come here to escape dire economic conditions that we’re largely responsible for. One of the best ways to curb illegal immigration is not to construct a big fence, but to fix the problems we’ve created.
SOMOS TODOS INMIGRANTES! WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS!
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“WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS!”
Yes, but this issue is about ILLEGAl immigrants. Not even close to the same thing.
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“illegality is just a tool of oppression”
yeah, that’s it. Timothy McVeigh is simply “oppressed”. Get real. Actually illegal immigrants are worse than Timothy McVeigh. While McVeigh only committed crimes one day in his life, the illegal immigrants commit crimes EVERY DAY by living in a country they’re not supposed to be in.