iPHilillll
3A
NEWS^e Charlotte
Thursday, March 30. 2006
Immigration reform splits
lawmakers, advocates
Continued from page 1A
Pro-immigration rallies last week across Uie
U.S. raised the stakes. Protesters from
Charlotte to Los Angeles rallied for a national
policy that allows immigrants already here to
remain.
The Congressional Black Caucus hasn’t
staked out an official positicai, said chairman
Eep, Mel Watt (D-N.C.), who voted against the
House immigration bill last year. Charlotte
P^publican Sue MyriCk, a staunch supporter of
tougher r^trictions, voted for it.”
“We’re all immigrants or descendants of
immigrants at some level,” Watt said. “Tliere’s
no need to over-react and criminalize being in
the comtry illegally”
Illegal immigration is a direct threat to
African Americans, insists former Winston-
Salem alderman Vernon RoMnson. Last month
at a Charlotte town hall meeting, Robinson, a
congressional candidate, said iUegal immi
grants are more likdy to work for less than
minimum wage, which depresses earning
power for native-born and naturalized
Americans.
“A large number of illegal (immigrants) keep
wages down,” Robinson said. ‘When they
become the No. 1 minority that means busi
nesses are going to replace (blacks) with
minorities that speak the language of the
immigrants.”
The Republican -dominated Senate is split on
immigration. There have been signs that con
servatives are willing to compromise to offer
illegals broader opportunities to lawful
employment, which President Bush supports.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (D-Tfenn.), a
potential 2008 presidential candidate, intro
duced l^islation to stiffen border security and
penalties. But Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has also for
warded a more lenient biU that would allow
undocumented immigrants to apply for work
visas and move toward citizenship.
Immigration is a hot-button issue in North
Carolina. Federal officials estimate there are
more than 500,000 iUegals in the state, many
of whom work in the service industry The
state’s economy needs the labor. Dole argues.
“Tfemporary foreign labor plays an important
role in the agriculture and savice industries in
North Carolina and throughout the country,”
she said. ‘1 would consider legislation that
secures our borders to stop illegal immigration
and then create temporary work permits,
where people can apply to work in this country
for a limited period of time as long as they pay
taxes and obey tiie law.”
'We need comprehexisive immigration
reform that secures our borders, protects
Americans and addresses the 11 million
undocumaited immigrants hving here today,”
said Sen. Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-
Nev.), “I hope Sen. Frist will immediately sub
stitute this comprehensive approach for his
viTongheaded bill.”
Pull Senate debate began Tuesday and is
expected to last two weeks, A House-Senate
committee must reconcile differences between
bOls version before it can become law.
Watt, a Democrat who serves on the House
Judiciary Committee, said making illegal
immigration a felony - which is what the
House-approved bill does - is wroi^.
“It was too draconian and would put too
many people in jail just for being in the coun-
tiy whether they broke any laws or not,” he
said-
THE LAW OFFICE OF
CHIEGE 0, KALU OKWAM
Areas ol
• Criminal t
• Juvenile
• Civil litigt
• Immigrat
• Emplop
•DrujOif
• iisdeme
• Automot
• Personal
Black Americans trail nation
Continued from page 1A
tence.”
Jones noted that Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney who
presided over the Dred Scott
case was a supremely quali
fied jurist and had served as
secretary of treasxuy in the
Andrew Jackson administra
tion
‘Yet, when faced with the
fundamental question of
whether a one-time slave,
Dred Scott, had standing to
sue to retain his newly-
acquired fi^ status. Justice
Taney wrote that black peo
ple — slaves - were not per
sons within the contempla
tion of the framers of fhe
Constitution and were there
fore powerless to sue. Had
Chief Justice Taney been
imbued with a different scale
of values, our national history
on race might have been con
siderably different,” Jones
writes.
In another landmark case,
Plessy v- Ferguson, then-
Chief Justice Henry BiUings
had impeccable legal creden
tials.
“Justice Brown had served
on the Sixth Circuit of
Appeals and was the holder
of degrees finm Harvard and
Yale,” observed Jones, who
retired fi:^m the same
appeals court. ‘Yet, he lacks
the values that sensitized
him to understand why tiie
13th, 14th and 15th
Amendments had to become
part of the Constitution, That
responsibility fell to the lone
dissenter, John Marshall
Harlan, the son of KentucQjy
slave owners, a graduate of
Centre College and
TVansylvania University-
Justice Harland offered an
eloquent prophecy that the
court and the nation would
regret the doctrine it had
imposed on the nation.
“At first glance, Justice
Brown’s academic and career
credentials may have
appeared more impressive
than Jiistice Harlan’s. But in
the final analysis, it was
Justice Harlan, with his
superior values, who was
vmquestionably the finer
judge. Clearly if Justice
Harlan’s dissent had been the
majority view, we would not
be faced with the continuir^
stn^les over race.”
Jones’ contribution was one
of eight essays incliided in
this year’s State of Black
America. In addition to the
essays, the report presents
this year’s annual National
Urban League Equality
Index, a yardstick fca- mea
suring progress, and an
analysis of Afiican-American
presence on Simday morning
talk shows.
The essay on black home
ownership contains some
stunnii^ revdations.
‘between 1994 and 2004,
the black homeownership
rate rose finm 42.3 percent to
49.1 percent, the hipest rate
in history Moreover, the
Black homeownership rate
grew faster than the white
homeownership rate,” writes
Lance Freeman, in “Black
Homeownership: A Dream
No Longer Deferred?” He
continues, “Despite these
impressive gains, however,
the Black homeownership
rate in the first decade of the
21st century was only begin
ning to approach the White
homeownership rate of1900.”
NNFA News Service
Editor-in-Chief George E.
Curry served as editor of this
year’s State of Black America
report and wrote a chapter
titled, “Racial Disparities
Drive Prison Boom.”
He cites a Sentencing
Project report: “African-
Americans who use dn^ are
more likely to be arrested
than other groups, and then
to penetrate more deeply into
the criminal justice system.
While African-Americans
constitute 13 percent of the
nation’s monthly drug users,
they represent 35 percent of
those persons arrested for
drug crime, 53 percent of
drug convictions and 58 per
cent of those in prison for
drug offenses.”
Curry wrote that radal dis
parities grow even wider in
states with “three strikes and
you’re out” mandatory sen
tencing requirements.
Cafifomia, the nation’s most
populous state, is a case in
point.
Quoting one report, he
writes: “Rfrnorities tend to be
arrested at higher rates than
whites, then the dispropor-
tionality increases as they
proceed through the sys
tem. .. Afiican Americans con
stitute 6.5 percent of the state
popvilationbut 21.7 pav^t of
the felony arrests. Going
deeper into the system, they
constitute 29.7 percent of the
prison population, 35.8 per
cent of second strikers and
44.7 percent of the third
strike.
“On the other hand, whites
constitute 47.1 percent of the
population but only 35.7 per
cent of felony arrests and 28.7
percent of the prison popula
tion, Whit^ constitute 26.1
percent of second strikers and
25.4 percent of third strik
ers.”
Marian Wright Edehnan,
president of the Children’s
Defense Fund, quoted a
German theologian who
ai^ed that the test of the
morality of a society is how it
treats its children.
The U. S. is failing that test,
especially in how its treats
black babies, she said.
A widely referenced compo
nent of the Annual State of •
Black America is what the
organizations calls it’s equali
ty index,” measuring the
decreasing or increasing gaps
between blacks and whites in
health, education, economics,
social justice and civic
engagement.
QUALIFICATIONS
L.LB (Hoiisl Utik ol Lagos, Nigeria., WS2
B-LIHonslffiser/a, 13S3
1,IM. Harvard Unimrsilf., ISSS
LIM, lint. Legal Stu(liesllVK(;„ISS7
Noitl) Carolm., t99L
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
New York State Bar, North Carolina State
Bar, Licensed in Federal Court, Eastern
District of NY, Licensed in Federal Court,
Southern District of NY, Licensed in
Federal Court, Western District of NC,
Licensed in the United States Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit,
BALLANTYNE ONE • 15720 JOHN J. DELANEY OR. #300 704.944.3221
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