NAACP Calls on State Leaders to Support Undocumented Immigrants
On Christmas Eve, the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP weighed in on the issue of undocumented immigrants’ access to higher education. The NAACP joined together with the Adelante Education Coalition for a joint rally and press conference.
Standing on the steps of the NC Community College System administrative building, NAACP President William Barber called upon the leaders of our state to open the doors of higher education. Calling it his Christmas message, Rev. Barber asked the question “Is there no room in the inn?”
Here are the first few minutes of Rev. Barber’s message.
You can watch the remainder in two other clips I posted on YouTube. (Part 2, Part 3)
Rev. Barber started out theologically:
One of the facts we must remember about Christmas is that Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus, were treated as though they were illegal. The government wanted their money, their taxes, and their labor-- but the same government did not want them to have dignity, worth, and recognition as fellow citizens with a common humanity. It was not safe during the first Christmas to be different from the Empire. If you were not Roman, you did not mean much and you were seen as a tool to be used-- not a person to be respected. This was the context of Jesus’ birth. Over 2,000 years ago tonight, Jesus began life as an alien, with the experience of being unwelcome.
Political history buffs will get a kick out of Barber's comparing today's anti-immigrant leaders to the “Know-Nothing” movement of the 1850’s. And he called on today’s leaders to take the path of the abolitionist leaders who challenged the anti-immigrant tide and slavery.
This is the kind of courageous and moral leadership we need in our candidates—especially those who would lead our state. Surely there must be candidates for office that have the courage today to provide similar leadership—proposing programs that will unite Black, Brown, and White working people to create stronger labor and human rights for all God’s children—not divide us.
Barber concluded with a call for today’s leaders to act courageously and justly:
We must open up the inn. Instead of tearing people apart, we must bring people together and open up the inn. Instead of our leaders misusing and misspending billions of dollars on a senseless war, we must challenge them--stop the war. Spend the money on education, health care, and jobs. Let’s give life and hope. We must open up the inn. Let it not be said we made the same sinful mistake that the government of Herod made when he brutalized, separated, scapegoated and banned ‘those people’—people who looked different than he. King Herod lost his humanity in the act of denying humanity. He violated the imago dei --- the image of God --that every person possesses. Let us not follow Herod. Follow the Christ. Open up the inn.
Additional tidbits:
Channel 17 was the only televsion station to cover the event, so I’ll link to their coverage here. But I have to say that their use of stock footage of people running through wilderness (presumably across the border) was unnecessarily inflammatory.
Eddie Davis, Executive Director of the NC Association of Educators, also spoke at the rally. Davis told the crowd that he is running for Supt. of Public Instruction and that he would speak out for justice on the council of state.
I also posted a YouTube clip of fifth grader Sunny Osment speaking (bilingually) at the rally.
I gave the action charge at the end of the rally. I shared that behind closed doors house and senate legislative leaders have told advocates for this issue that they can not stop any bills that would prevent undocumented immigrants from attending our universities and community colleges. If North Carolina did pass such a measure, we would be the only state in the country to have a law preventing immigrants from pursuing an education. I called on the crowd to contact their legislators to support higher education access for all residents of North Carolina.
If you want to see me speak out on this issue, you can watch this clip of an interview I did for News 14.
Tip of the hat to KMR’s post earlier today. You’re right on Kirk.
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excellent post
I've seen and heard Rev Barber speak on this issue and he is eloquent and inspiring.
I fully support Rev. Barber's powerful call for NC's leaders to take the moral high ground and treat all people with dignity and respect. In today's volatile atmosphere, it takes real courage to call for fair treatment of immigrants, and that will play into my decision about which candidates to support. My hope is that more leaders join Rev. Barber's call for unity, justice and equity for all (especially the least powerful among us)!
Who is it that thinks we should punish these children?
When push comes to shove, who will vote to punish children? I hear Bush even caved on S-CHIP, it hurts your image to toss children under the bus.
Great post Graig - more from me later, I have to run.
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Thanks for posting this
I'm glad to see the leadership setting the tone. We're at a crossroads and the rhetoric coming from the anti-immigrant movement needs to be challenged not waited out. I'm worried about the effect on young people who are learning a whole new world of hate. We can change laws, but hearts, once hardened, are much more difficult to turn around.
The Know Nothing comparison is pretty good and telling — that movement led to mob violence aimed at ethnic cleansing against those nasty Irish. These are the fruits of what's being sowed today.
I think it's fantastic.
Graig - your statements on channel 14 were exactly on target. The children are taught the American Dream. We are actually doing ourselves a disservice if we don't help them get educated to their full potential and join the workforce legitimately. By doing that we will keep America strong and competitive. People have to stop being afraid of the "other" and embrace the diversity we've got in our country.
Yes, we need reform to the laws, and yes, we've got to address how to handle the people who have broken the laws, but the children we're talking about have not broken the laws themselves. They've just been brought here.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Undocumented persons living in the US
There are an estimated eleven to thirteen million Illegal aliens living in the United States. The greatest majority of the illegal aliens in America today are Mexican citizens who arrived from across our border with Mexico. Some arrived yesterday, and many thirty and forty years ago at the open invitation of American agricultural interest. Some, having arrived many years ago, have immediate relatives (children, grandchildren, spouses, etc.) who are natural born U.S. Citizens (Not Anchor children, as the Republicans refer to them).
Although now politically popular, the notion that we can send all those millions of people packing is not only unrealistic, it is an impossible task. In this case, practicality and in deference to the millions of US citizens who would be adversely effected, we must find an accommodation, a middle ground, in the effort to resolve this issue.
To strengthen our borders and our relationships with our neighbors is the only real solution. High fences running for miles and deep trenches, although necessary in some areas, will not be sufficient to the task. The task will require total cooperation and assistance from the Mexican Federal Government. To negotiate a plan and method for cooperation will be the truest path to successfully securing our borders with our friends and neighbors from the South. I am always amused by the clamor about our border security, particularly when the border with Canada is rarely mentioned.
The United States Agriculture groups and certain industrial entities have welcomed undocumented Mexican workers for over eight decades and encouraged them to remain in America where they were finding security, prosperity and acceptance. They came.
Our Government does need to develop a viable physical border security plan which will provide a reasonable level of physical border security, but should also initiate cooperation programs with the Mexican and Canadian governments which will solicit mutual assistance and security.
All eighteen of the 9-11 hijackers came across the Canadian border, a favorite crossing place for illegal Europeans and Middle Easterners, or were here on legal visas. No Mexican, having legally or illegally arrived from Mexico, has ever been charged with Terrorism. A comprehensive and serious program of securing our boarders should be the priority.
Trying to hunt down millions of people living in America, some having been here for four and five decades, is a fools folly serving political interest and which will cost more than it will ever save. The human, as well as the economic, toll would be incalculable.
. Neal Sedaka
Well said, Marshall.
You might be too sensible to be running for Congress.