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BY JERRY DAVICH
jdavich@nwitimes.com
219.933.3376 | Friday, February 03, 2006 | (No comments posted.)
A powder keg legislative bill in the Indiana House, denying public aid and medical care to undocumented immigrants, is getting torched by local Latinos who say it's unfair, harsh and even inhumane.
House Bill 1383, sponsored by Rep. Eric Turner, R-Gas City, would simply underline existing federal law by prohibiting public assistance and health care to illegal immigrants, supporters say.
"Taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used to reward illegal immigrants who break into this country," Greg Serbon, of St. John Township, said. "We're being taken advantage of, and this bill addresses that."
Latinos from this region, where Lake County has the highest numbers of Hoosier Hispanics, adamantly disagree.
"It is not about rewarding nondocumented individuals," said Myrna Maldonado, the newly elected secretary of the Indiana Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs. "It is about dealing with the reality that they are here living, working, raising their families, contributing to our economy and paying into our Social Security base -- a base they will never be able to collect."
House Bill 1383, which won support from the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee last month, will only hurt Hispanic families and, more importantly, children, opponents say.
"Where has our humanity gone?" asked Maria Guillen, a bilingual specialist for WorkOne Northwest in Hammond. "As advocates for the Hispanic community, it is inhuman to deny health care to undocumented immigrants."
Why, she asked, doesn't the government also deny similar public aid to criminals in prisons.
"Aren't they lawbreakers too? What is the difference?" she asked. "A green card."
The bill also will negatively impact health care programs such as Promotores de Salud Maternal E Infantil in East Chicago, Eva Quiroz, the agency's prenatal care coordinator, said.
"We are dealing with human beings first and foremost," she said. "The underlying question should be whether health care is a human right or not. If we as a people don't think so, what does that say about us?"
The bill would levy stiff fines for Hoosier businesses that employ undocumented workers after a Tuesday night amendment by Rep. John Aguilera, D-East Chicago.
Serbon, who serves as Lake County director of the Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform & Enforcement, also supports the amendment, saying businesses are under-cutting union workers by hiring cheaper, illegal labor.
Serbon said he spoke to the bill's author Thursday and both men agree enforcement of the federal law is the bottom line, not racial bias, he said.
"The state is having to take the law into its own hands," said Serbon, who group is the Indiana chapter of the national Minuteman Project. "There has been zero enforcement nationally."
Maldonado said Latino Americans do not condone nor support illegal immigration and are in favor of fair and humane immigration reform. But the bill is "far from humane and unfortunately is a testament of the racial attitudes that continue to permeate our state," she said.
What does an 'illegal alien' look like?
Myrna Maldonado, secretary of the Indiana Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, said House Bill 1383 "requires law enforcement to attempt to verify the legal status of an individual suspected of being an illegal alien" and "requires a public elementary or secondary school or state educational institution to verify the legal status of each student."
This means, she said, that if an individual looks like an "illegal alien" they can be stopped, detained and asked to verify citizenship while on their way to work, school, dinner or church. This would depend on a person's country of origin, she said.
"If from Mexico, is it dark hair and olive skin? If from Yugoslavia or Serbia, is it dark hair and olive skin? If from Greece or Italy, is it dark hair and olive skin? If from the Middle East, Caribbean or parts of Europe, is it dark hair and olive skin?"
House Bill 1383, she said, lends itself to racial profiling and violations of individual and civil rights. It also impedes education as it forces school administrators and teachers to act as immigration agents rather than educators.
"It is a violation of an individual's human rights."
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