With change comes reaction: Immigrants in the US

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Because there is an increasing number of immigrants moving into U.S.
suburban neighborhoods there comes change. At a discussion on
“Immigration, Politics and Local Responses” immigration experts shared
their research from all around the United States on how local
residents reacted to the growing rate of immigrants moving into their
neighborhoods.

Angeles Ortega-Moore, the Chief Executive Officer of the Latin
American Coalition (LAC), said that at first LAC was a cultural
organization for Latinos in North Carolina but as the immigrant
population grew they had to change their programming. “No longer we
were doing Pasofino and horse shows and things like that. We started
to do English as a second language, how do we help people applying for
their driving licenses…We became really fully a social service
organization.” she said.

Audrey Singer, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy
Program shared her research on immigration in Prince William County,
Virginia, and said that changes in the suburban neighborhoods got
residents frustrated and in March 2007 some of them started a “Help
save Manassas” group, whose stated goal was, “To reduce the number of
illegal aliens living in our community.” That led to two resolutions
that directed police to ascertain a person’s legal status only when
they had probable cause to believe the person was illegally present
and to restrict unauthorized immigrants from receiving business
licenses and participating in eight social service programs. From her
research, Singer recommended that leaders be more organized when
creating new policies. “Facts are important for policy making…and
officials should communicate policy changes clearly. Many of the
residents were confused by the new policies…and many in the
immigrant community were fearful about how the new policies would
affect them.”