This is Kristen Lash, the Web/Blog Coordinator for John Laesch for US Congress. Tonight, I am blogging live from the Geneva Public Library, where John will shortly be holding his town hall meeting on immigration. As you may remember
Dennis Hastert was invited to debate John on this very subject. However, he has decided to ignore what his constituents have to say in favor of cronyism. He is running around the country, more worried about throwing pork into other races than listening to the voters in his own district. Who knows where he is tonight?
Updates will be posted as the event progresses.
Our moderator tonight is Professor Michael DeHaven from Northern Illinois University. Our speakers are as follows:
Of course, John Laesch, Candidate for US Congress in Illinois' 14th congressional district against Dennis Hastert.
Mr. Robert Perkins, an attorney who specializes in immigration law.
Ms. Rosanna Pulido, from the Illinois Minuteman Project.
Someone from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights was invited, but is having problems getting out here.
*Lawyer*
Robert Perkins is telling some very heartwrenching stories of clients he has worked with. One was of an Irish immigrant who's visa had expired. He had to close down his business and leave, even though he wanted to become legal, because there is no option for someone to become legal once they are illegal.
He told another story of a Nanny, educated with a degree in special education. She had many job offers, but had only been here on a visa. Her family were legal immigrants and US citizens, but she could not stay. She had to leave the country for 5 years while they processed her request.
All of this to say that the process of legal is not working.
He is now educating on the various types of immigration: Temporary visas, Permenant residence, Citizenship, and Illegal.
He just gave a great quote to wrap up his speech: "I am a proponent of immigration, I guess I should admit my own bias, but I am also a proponent of consistency in the system."
*Minuteman*
Now the minuteman is up talking. This should be interesting. She just got up and said, "I have a bias, too. I believe in upholding the pledge of allegiance and the constitution."
I was right, this is interesting. She is speaking on the effects illegal immigration has had on America. It is the Typical arguments: They are a drain on the education system, therefore driving up property taxes and driving people out of their homes. They are refusing to assymilate, which means we have to pay for bilingual education. Our veterans are being ignored in favor of helping illegal immigrants. American citizens are experiencing "Death by Illegals." "The high price of cheap labor." "The cry of the minutemen is 'Come legally! Work legally! Drive legally!'"
*Hastert's Replacement*
Of course, John came out swinging! He [prematurely] announced our online "Where's Denny" campaign. He talked about his experiences growing up in Africa. He said there was a man there that would tell them stories about men in blue jeans that would come and talk to the tribe leaders. The tribe leaders would go capture members of other tribes and the men in blue jeans would take those people away. John said he did not wear blue jeans as a kid, because that story was told so much that the people there hated people in blue jeans. What the old man didn't know is that they were capturing these people to bring them over here as illegal aliens for cheap labor. He said this has really shaped his view on immigration: It's all about worker's rights.
He also talked about Hastert. He talked about how Hastert is all talk and no action. He is all about talking about border security in an election year, even though he didn't even do anything about it after 9/11.
He ended his speech with some facts about immigration and cheap labor. "Bush says terrorists have no borders. I believe that multinational coorporations have no borders. They will go anywhere for cheap labor."
There is some media walking around and snapping pictures, too. And a TV camera man came! And, the room is almost full, and people are STILL coming in!
*The End*The last half of the meeting was open for discussion, and discuss they did. We spent over an hour letting people from the audience come up and share their observations, comments, and experiences. There were a couple of rude people, but over all it went well. There was a Native American, a handful of hispanics, and a couple of african americans, so it was a fairly diverse crowd. There were Laesch supporters, ICIRR people, and minutemen in the crowd. What I found interesting, though, is even amongst all this diversity, there was no love for Dennis Hastert in that room. It's obvious why the pro-immigration people wouldn't, but even the minutemen were not happy with Hastert. They recognize that Hastert has been all talk and no action for way too long, and they are tired of it. In fact, the leader of the Illinois minutmen actually commended John for listening to them and being interested in taking action.
The other thing I found interesting was that John got almost everyone in the room to agree on two things in this debate. number one was border security. Everyone agreed that it needs to be tighter. Number two is an idea that John had that came out of the discussion. Here's some background...
Someone brought up the fact that everyone in that room (save the Native American) came from immigrant families. Someone said, "Yes, but we came LEGALLY." And someone else said, "Yes, but it was easier then, because we had Ellis Island." So, John proposed an "Ellis Island South." That was something that almost everyone agreed on, because it offered an easier route for them to come, and they would be legal when coming through there. I thought it was so neat. I could go on all night about the public discourse in that room, and how the discussion with the people actually brought out some compromise. However, I will leave that to another night, as I am sleepy, and have to work in 7 hours.
Good night, all, and thanks for your interest! Thanks also to leo for promoting this to the front page of IllinoisDemNet!
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Tomorrow night John himself will be live blogging on this subject on our own budding local blog, Fireside14.com. He will be taking questions from those who could not make the meeting, or from those who want to go into more detail than a town hall forum allows for.
(crossposted on IllinoisDemNet)