A New Direction

NCGA Select Committee Backs Down: Where Do We Go From Here?

We have several other states that I think moved out ahead of their blockers, and probably created as many or more problems than they theoretically fixed, and we can learn from that.

–NC House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Cornelius

Given what happened in the national election and the importance of the Latino vote, there are new cautions in doing anything really radical… This is a pretty reactionary state House and Senate but I still think they see where the bread is buttered nationally.

–Peter Siavelis, Director, Wake Forest University Latin American and Latino Studies Program

North Carolina Republicans’ resounding victories this November, coupled with state GOP lawmakers’ previously expressed desire to pursue harsh anti-immigrant legislation, led many advocates to expect the worst. The state House Select Committee on the State’s Role in Immigration Policy convened last week to issue its recommendations, and several committee members had implied in previous statements that they would seize the opportunity to push an Arizona-style "show-me-your-papers" law. Instead, when co-chair Frank Iler opened by announcing that his committee would recommend no specific legislation, murmurs of surprise arose throughout the packed conference room. The meeting concluded after only five minutes, and the Select Committee report, subsequently made available to the public, offered only these vague, general recommendations for the 2013-14 state legislative session:

• Continue “to review and revise previously introduced” bills.

• Pass resolutions calling on the federal government to enforce border security and delegate wider enforcement authority to individual states.

• Reach out to “entities with economic interest in the issues, such as leaders in the fields of agriculture and agribusiness, construction, hospitality, information technology, and science.”

• Renew “focus on economic development potential… through pragmatic approaches to immigration in this State.”

This turn of events stands in stark contrast to all previous Select Committee meetings, which convened with a far more combative tone. In its very first hearing last December, Iler and company invited Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson, whose office was under federal investigation for systematic mistreatment of Latina/o residents, to testify on the federal-local immigration enforcement partnership know as 287(g) (USDOJ has since issued a damning report against Johnson and his department suspended their participation in the 287(g) program).

After witnessing hate-filled, misleading testimony from Johnson and other demagogues, undocumented youth chose to speak publicly and provocatively at the committee’s February hearing:

The video above (taken by Josh Davis, the filmmaker behind The Undocumentary) captures bystanders jeering as Estephania Mijangos, Cynthia Martinez, and Uriel Alberto are ushered out of the committee hearing by General Assembly police. Over and over, onlookers hurl incredulous shouts of “Go home!” at these longtime North Carolina residents who refuse to accept such contemptuous treatment. Ten months later, proud and defiant undocumented voices continue echo throughout North Carolina, while anti-immigrant lobbyists are left to redirect their vitriol toward the lawmakers retreating from their cause.

Still, undocumented youth remain far from celebratory. “North Carolina’s Republican leadership has made an intelligent analysis and appears to be approaching the matter with care,” the NC DREAM Team wrote on its blog, before pivoting quickly to remind readers that the status quo for immigrant workers and families in our state remains incredibly difficult. “However, our state’s leadership remains far from opening its arms to recognize the contributions undocumented immigrants bring to North Carolina.” The DREAM Team highlighted three particularly daunting challenges:

• Out-of-state tuition rates keep higher education out of reach for many undocumented students;

• A statewide ban remains in place on driver’s licenses for undocumented residents;

• Harsh, destabilizing workplace enforcement continues, as seen in mass arrests of migrant workers without criminal records (despite ICE’s official designation of such cases as “low priority” for deportation) as well as new E-Verify requirements passed into law last year.

While many advocates responded with relief to the news that the NCGA will not prioritize Arizona-style anti-immigrant legislation, the DREAM Team rightly points out that we continue to face a status quo in North Carolina that is hostile to migrant families. Energy that might have been invested in fighting new statewide enforcement laws will need to be directed elsewhere, to equally pressing concerns. At the moment, there seem to be two major fronts in this struggle, one much farther from home than Raleigh and one far closer.

In Washington DC, speculation has run rampant since last month’s election that immigration reform will be among the first priorities for the U.S. Congress in its coming session. Last Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported in some detail on the Obama administration’s planned January push for a comprehensive immigration reform bill. While many lawmakers from both parties remain optimistic that some form of legislation will be enacted in the coming year, the nature of that legislation is far from clear. With so much up in the air, public pressure may yet play an enormous role in determining the final shape of reform.

While far-reaching reform proposals are debated in Washington, however, the mundane details of life continue unabated here at home. As important as broad policy debate remains in the long-term, many advocates and would-be allies are less cognizant of more immediate crises unfolding daily within our own communities. State and local headlines from the past two weeks provide snapshots of the challenges facing North Carolina, as well as the often surprising success with which migrant communities are fighting back:

• Two years ago, Sparta resident Felipe Montes was deported and his two children, both U.S. citizens, were placed in foster care after Alleghany County child welfare officials refused to send Montes’ sons to live with him in Mexico. After a lengthy court battle, District Court Judge Michael Duncan awarded Montes custody of his children two weeks ago. On Wednesday, the Immigration Policy Center published a great guide to recent research that illustrates how common this type of family separation remains.

• Earlier this year in Burlington, single mother Lorena Yañez-Mata found herself facing deportation proceedings as well as criminal prosecution for “obtaining property under false pretenses” after a local Time Warner Cable employee reported her to local law enforcement when she attempted to purchase cable service for her home. This week, Yañez-Mata and supporters rallied to demand relief, catching the eye of local media (see video below). Within a day, she scored two very public victories: Time Warner Cable dropped charges and an immigration judge closed her deportation case.

• Here in Western North Carolina, public campaigns to fight deportation proceedings have been picking up steam over the past few weeks in two separate cases:
• Family and friends rallied last week in front of Senator Kay Hagan’s downtown Asheville office to call on the Senator to support relief for 23-year-old Francisco Hernandez of Marion, whose case stands at odds with the enforcement priorities repeatedly championed by President Obama and his administration.
• November 29 marked the one-year anniversary of a workplace raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at Shogun Buffet and Hibachi Grill on Brevard Road in Asheville. ICE detained twelve restaurant employees that morning, several of whom continue to fight deportation proceedings a year later. Five of these workers filed a lawsuit on the anniversary of the raid, seeking $70,000 in unpaid wages from their former employer [full disclosure: through my involvement in Defensa Comunitaria, I have supported several of these workers throughout the past year as they have sought to fight deportation and tell their stories publicly].

Immigration policy faces an uncertain future with new legislative sessions set to begin next month in Raleigh and Washington, D.C. In the coming weeks, WNC Migration Review will continue to explore the possibility of national reform as well as the challenges facing local immigrant communities in the absence of federal action.