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At issue: Immigration reform

Lawmaker discusses action at state level

Robert C. Reed

N.C. Rep. Ray Warren talks with area residents about immigration reform at First Presbyterian Church in Hickory on Monday night.

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: August 19, 2008

HICKORY - Whether American citizens want them here or not, illegal immigrants are in this country, living and working next to us.

The North Carolina Legislature has approved legislation to make driver's licenses harder for illegal immigrants to forge. However, there are still larger steps that need to be taken, said N.C. Rep. Ray Warren.

Warren spoke at the First Presbyterian Church in Hickory on Monday. The church is hosting a series of discussions on immigration reform in the community. Warren spoke about things being done at the state level, such as the state being prohibited from hiring anyone illegal.

Blake Watts said America's built like a stepladder. No matter if you want to go to school or are getting a job, each part of the system is based on starting at the bottom and working your way up.

"The bottom line is that to be in our country is a privilege," he said. "The businesses that are paying the illegals, that person has to move up the ladder eventually, too. Whoever is here is here because they felt this country is better than where they were. But they are going to have to earn what they get."

Iris Fuentes came to the U.S. when she was 7. She said she came because her family wanted to.

Fuentes, now 19, wanted to know why she struggled to make good grades, if options for higher education, such as attending Catawba Valley Community College, are not going to let her in.

"I don't understand why it's law for every student to go to school until they're 16, why they're requiring us to go to school, when they're closing all doors to us after that. Dropouts, pregnancies, they all go back to this," Fuentes said. "Why bother? Why do we bother to get an A on tests, or get a high GPA? I'm trying to get my license in massage therapy, and I probably won't get it, but I'm trying, just so that no one will be able to tell my that I didn't try."

JoAnn Spees said Fuentes, and children like her, don't have a voice when their parents decided to come to the U.S.

"No one said, 'Want to take a vote about where we go?' They were little kids, and they're caught in the abyss," she said. "And people wonder why there are gangs."

Warren said it's up to the federal government for a decision to be made about what to do about the number of illegal immigrants in our nation and their illegal status.

"It will take Congress and an agreeable president, and they're going to have to sit down and work out a policy to determine a process for legal status," he said.