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“Will we be ignored?” wondered Cleveland immigration attorney
Richard Herman on his Facebook page.
Herman sent a letter dated April
30th to Andrea Hogben, president of Northeast Ohio
Media Group, in his role as LULAC Ohio Civil Rights
Director. The letter was the second sent by LULAC officials
criticizing the column, entitled: “Illegal
immigrants don't want to be Americans; they want money.”
“They’re immigrants only in the sense that they have entered
from another country. They stay as long as it suits them, or
until they get caught,” the column read. “Citizenship is the
very last thing on their minds. Money is the very first.”
In his letter, Herman disparaged the April 8 op-ed column by
Cleveland Plain Dealer deputy editorial page editor Kevin
O’Brien as “factually inaccurate, substantially violates
fundamental journalistic standards, and is intended to fuel the
fires of intolerance in Northeast Ohio and across the country.”
The opinion piece coincided with a national controversy over
racially-disparaging remarks made by an NBA franchise owner, who
was later fined and banned for life from professional
basketball.
“I have heard from some in your organization that this Op-Ed is
merely Mr. O’Brien’s opinion. That is true, albeit one founded
on misinformation,” Herman wrote. “But that does not mean that
you should publish it. Would you publish an Op-Ed by L.A.
Clippers owner Donald Sterling that explained why
African-Americans are inferior to others, simply because he
believed in this viewpoint?”
Herman’s letter was a follow-up to a four-page letter sent by
Hugo Urizar, Cleveland LULAC chapter president, requesting a
meeting between LULAC representatives, Latino clergy, and
Northeast Ohio Media Group officials. That letter, according to
LULAC, went unanswered.
“Please know we are deeply offended by the Op-Ed and your
decision to run this piece,” Urizar wrote.
The Cleveland LULAC president cited a 2012 study by the Pew
Hispanic Center in his letter, which found that 93 percent
of Latino immigrants wanted to become U.S. citizens. The trend
was a common one among legal permanent residents and those who
are not. Urizar also cited federal historical data that showed
naturalizations have steadily increased decade-over-decade since
1970, reaching an all-time high of more than one million in
2008.
“This is not just an ‘opinion’—this is propaganda intended to
harm and further marginalize the undocumented community, which
is largely Hispanic,” wrote Urizar. “This Op-Ed and the decision
to publish it cannot be dismissed as merely an expression of one
person’s opinion. The Northeast Ohio Media Group should
not be a purveyor of hate speech masquerading as informed
opinion.”
Herman and Urizar both raised concerns that promoting such
attitudes on immigration would keep Northeast Ohio from
progressing economically as a region. They cited the attitudes
of other Midwestern cities as “immigration-friendly” as a means
of not only re-populating their communities, but as an economic
development engine.
“The region is sorely in need of new energy, entrepreneurs,
investors, innovators, homeowners, and multicultural skills,”
wrote Urizar. “New immigrants provide this.”
O’Brien reiterated his position in a follow-up column April 22,
acknowledging his original comments had received some backlash.
He maintained, once again, that undocumented immigrants have no
interest in obtaining citizenship.
“What drives them, I wrote,
is a mercenary interest. I’ll stand by that,” O’Brien opined.
A reader suggested that O’Brien should meet some of the
immigrants and refugees he wrote about.
In his follow-up column, O’Brien bristled at the notion.
“It doesn’t matter whether they’re nice people or had good
personal reasons for coming here. They are in the wrong, no
matter their personal reasons,” he wrote.
“But I oppose theft, and theft is precisely what illegal aliens
engage in when they come here unbidden. I cannot give to charity
that which is not mine, nor can I countenance illegal aliens
helping themselves to the wealth of this nation,” O’Brien
continued. “It is true that all people are my neighbors. So am I
supposed to allow one neighbor to steal and another to be stolen
from?”
The Plain Dealer columnist was careful not to single out
Latinos in his follow-up piece. But he clearly stated his
contention that undocumented immigrants have broken the law and
should be subject to penalty as a result.
“He
is not, however, entitled to stay in the United States
unless he can satisfy the civil authorities that he is a refugee
from imminent harm,” wrote O’Brien. “Failing that, he should be
sent back home with a stern admonition that if he is interested
in residing in the United States, he must follow the legal
course.”
In his April 30 letter, Herman renewed LULAC’s request for a
meeting with Northeast Ohio Media Group and Plain
Dealer officials.
However, anticipating that meeting would never take place,
Herman added a list of demands: that the newspaper and website
publish an apology and retraction; make changes to its editorial
board so Hispanic and immigrant voices are heard; and, establish
a “community advisory board” that reflects the diversity of the
Cleveland community and a “real understanding of the economic,
cultural, and legal implications of immigration.”
On the Internet:
There’s no such thing as an ‘illegal immigrant’
http://theweek.com/article/index/260817/theres-no-such-thing-as-an-illegal-immigrant
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