Recap of the Summit on Immigration in Marshalltown

I mentioned yesterday I would post updates on the immigration summit and failed to do so because of the power outage. So here it is...

The Marshalltown Times Republican, who sponsored the event, wrote a good summary piece of the day's events here. They begin by saying...

The National Summit on Immigration in Marshalltown Monday included national figures, local issues and some who could not keep quiet during the event and had to be escorted out.

This was the thing that I came away from the event noticing most. The tensions at the event were high. It was almost as interesting listening to the comments from the people around me than it was to listen to panelists.

Audience members were allowed to write down questions for the panelists. During the couple hours I was there, there were 4 outbursts from audience members who disagreed with something the panelists said. I couldn't tell for sure, but I think one women was part of 2 or 3 of the outburts and bet that she didn't make it to the end of the event. During one of the outbursts, the person referred to the damage illegal aliens are doing to our nation. Another audience had this clever response...

There is no such thing as aliens.

On a question that was pointed at pinning rising health costs to illegal immigrants, the panelist said...

Can’t attribute the higher cost of health care to the raise of immigrants. There are so many reason that health care costs are rising and Medicare re-imbursement is just part of it. Immigrants are just part of the population included in Medicare re-imbursement.

Here was another interesting question and answer from one of the panelists that received some postive and negative reactions from the audience...

Why do immigrants get rights for free, while citizens have to fight for their constitutional rights?

The rights in the constitution are guaranteed to everyone within the United States, citizens and not citizens. That was the founding father’s intentions and is one of the questions on nationalization test.

One question asked was what are our schools doing to teach our students about not becoming xenophobic (which was defined as the fear of foriegners). The answer pretty much summed up the immigration debate, the lack thereof. One panelist, who works for the school district said he is lucky to work with kids because they don't see people as legal or illegal, they see them as who they are. Another panelist said people are unfamilar with the other culture and this produces fear. However, if they get to know the other culture they might actually find out they can learn something from it.

And finally this question was directed to Rep. Latham, who had already left. It takes the thinking on the immigration issue to the next level, beyond what we can do here in Iowa. This needs to be addressed and should become a key component to any comprehensive immigration reform.

A lot of immigrants would rather stay in their own countries, but economic and other issues force them to immigrate. What can our nation do to help overcome these forces in their native countries?

Any ideas?