1 U.S. COMMISSION on CIVIL RIGHTS 1 * * * * * 2 PUBLIC FIELD BRIEFING 3 * * * * * 4 FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2012 5 * * * * * 6 the Co
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1 1 U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS 2 * * * * * 3 PUBLIC FIELD BRIEFING 4 * * * * * 5 FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2012 6 * * * * * 7 The Commission convened at the Sheraton 8 Birmingham Hotel in the Birmingham Ballroom, 2101 9 Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard North, Birmingham, 10 Alabama at 9:02 a.m., MARTIN R. CASTRO, Chairman, 11 presiding. 12 PRESENT: 13 MARTIN R. CASTRO, Chairman 14 ROBERTA ACHTENBERG, Commissioner 15 TODD F. GAZIANO, Commissioner 16 GAIL L. HERIOT, Commissioner 17 PETER N. KIRSANOW, Commissioner 18 DAVID KLADNEY, Commissioner 19 MICHAEL YAKI, Commissioner 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 STAFF PRESENT: 2 PAMELA DUNSTON, Chief, ASCD 3 ANGELICA TREVINO 4 LENORE OSTROWSKY 5 MICHELE YORKMAN RAMEY 6 VANESSA EISEMANN, Attorney 7 YASMIN ELHADY, Attorney 8 FAYE ROBINSON 9 COMMISSIONER ASSISTANTS PRESENT: 10 NICHOLAS COLTEN 11 ALEC DEULL 12 CARISSA MULDER 13 JOHN MARTIN 14 MARLENE SALLO 15 ALISON SCHMAUCH 16 RICHARD SCHMECHEL 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 AGENDA ITEM PAGE 3 I. Introductory Remarks by Chairman 7 4 II. Remarks by Commissioner Gaziano 16 5 III. Remarks by Commissioner Yaki 20 6 IV. Panel One Speakers 7 - Kris Kobach, Secretary of State, 24 8 Kansas 9 - Chris England, Representative, 37 10 Alabama House of Representatives 11 - Scott Beason, Senator, Alabama 42 12 Senate 13 - Stacy Abrams, House Minority Leader 48 14 for the Georgia General Assembly 15 V. Questions by Commissioners 54 16 VI. Panel Two Speakers 17 - Tammy Besherse, South Carolina 115 18 Appleseed Legal Justice Center 19 - Chris Chmielenski, NumbersUSA 120 20 - Chuck Ellis, Councilman, City of 127 21 Albertville, Alabama 22 - William Lawrence, Principal, Foley 134 23 Elementary School, Alabama 24 - Steve Marshall, District Attorney, 139 25 Marshall County, Alabama 4 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont'd.) 2 AGENDA ITEM PAGE 3 - Isabel Rubio, Executive Director, 146 4 Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama 5 VII. Questions by Commissioners 152 6 VIII. Panel Three Speakers 7 - Marie Provine, Professor, Arizona 181 8 State University 9 - Carol Swain, Professor, Vanderbilt 187 10 University 11 - Mark Krikorian, Director, Center 190 12 for Immigration Studies 13 - Michele Waslin, American Immigration 196 14 Council 15 - Dan Stein, President, Federation for 203 16 American Immigration Reform 17 - Victor Viramontes, Mexican American 209 18 Legal Defense and Educational Fund 19 - Mary Bauer, Legal Director, Southern 214 20 Poverty Law Center 21 IX. Questions by Commissioners 224 22 X. Panel Four Speakers 23 - Joseph Knippenberg, Georgia SAC and 270 24 Professor, Oglethorpe University 25 5 1 2 6 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont'd.) 2 AGENDA ITEM PAGE 3 - Jerry Gonzalez, Georgia SAC and 277 4 Executive Director, Georgia Assn. of 5 Latino Elected Officials 6 - Joanne Milner, Utah SAC Chair and 283 7 Office of Mayor, Salt Lake City Corp. 8 XI. Remarks by Audience Members 9 - Leticia Ramirez 304 10 - Hina Nihal 305 11 XII. Adjournment 313 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 1 E X H I B I T S 2 EXHIBIT NO. DESCRIPTION 3 1 Five Facts About Undocumented Workers 4 in the United States, 2008, NCLR 5 2 Immigration Myths and Facts 6 3 Valle del Sol, et al vs Michael B. 7 Whiting, et al, CV-10-01061-PHX-SRB, 8 Filed 7-17-12 9 4 Declaration of Daniel Pochoda with 10 Attachments, ACLU Foundation of 11 Arizona 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 8 1 PROCEEDINGS 2 August 17, 2012 9:02 a.m. 3 CHAIRMAN CASTRO: Welcome. The meeting 4 will come to order. I'm Chairman Marty Castro of 5 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. I wish to 6 welcome everyone to our meeting here on the issue of 7 the civil rights implications of current state law 8 on immigration enforcement laws. It is now 9:02 9 a.m. on August 17, 2012. 10 The purpose of this briefing is to 11 analyze whether recently enacted state immigration 12 enforcement laws have adversely impacted the civil 13 rights of both U.S. citizens and noncitizen 14 immigrants. The purpose of this briefing is to 15 examine whether or not the recently enacted state 16 immigration laws foster discrimination or contribute 17 to an increase in hate crimes, cause elevated racial 18 or ethnic profiling, impact students' rights under 19 Plyler versus Doe or compromise the public safety or 20 community policing. 21 The United States Commission on Civil 22 Rights was created in 1957 as an independent, 23 bipartisan, fact-finding federal agency. Our 24 mission is to inform the development of national 25 civil rights policies and enhance enforcement of 9 1 civil rights laws. We prepare reports on those 2 topics to the President and the United States 3 Congress for them to take action on the issues that 4 we develop. 5 As Lyndon Johnson, then-Senate Majority 6 Leader, said in 1957, “the Commission is to gather 7 facts instead of charges. It can sift out the truth 8 from the fancies, and it can return with 9 recommendations that will be of assistance to 10 reasonable men.” 11 Speaking for the democratic members of 12 this panel, I can say that there are organizations 13 here today whose views we strongly oppose. These 14 are groups that we did not invite but were added to 15 the panel by our career staff upon recommendations 16 from our conservative commissioners. No doubt our 17 conservative colleagues can say that there are 18 groups here that were invited on recommendations 19 from the democrats whose views -- with whose views 20 they strongly disagree. 21 Speaking for myself personally as the 22 son and grandson of Mexican immigrants, as someone 23 who has been personally disparaged during the course 24 of my life with racial and ethnic epithets, whose 25 ten-year-old son was bullied at the beginning of the 10 1 last school year in Illinois because he was 2 perceived to be undocumented; and as the first 3 Latino chair of this Commission, 4 upon the appointment of myself by 5 President Obama to this Commission, I can tell you 6 that I strongly oppose the views of some of today's 7 speakers. 8 In fact, if I had the sole authority 9 and the ability to invite all the panelists for 10 today's briefing -- which is not how this Commission 11 works -- it would look very different. But that is 12 not how the process here works. However, every one 13 of today's panelists has a First Amendment right. 14 Peaceful protesters are exercising those same First 15 Amendment rights today. And I want to thank them 16 for being here and expressing their view, and I want 17 them to know that many of us on this issue are in 18 solidarity. 19 Immigration is a topic that inspires 20 both passion and controversy. This is a topic that 21 is at the forefront of the national discourse. The 22 civil rights aspect of the state immigration 23 enforcement laws was left unanswered by the Supreme 24 Court in its recent ruling in the Arizona case. 25 This is the type of topic our Commission should 11 1 be addressing, and I'm glad we're doing it and that 2 it has excited so much passion and activism, as have 3 many other important issues in the agency's storied 4 history. 5 Our enacting statute has tasked this 6 Commission with an investigative, fact-finding 7 mission to report accurate civil rights information 8 to the President and Congress. In order to fulfill 9 this mission, our agency should aim to protect 10 important constitutional rights, all while 11 maintaining impartiality to hear different opinions 12 on the important civil rights matters in our great 13 nation. If we do not allow constitutionally 14 protected speech -- we do not necessarily agree with 15 an opinion or view -- we are doing a disservice to 16 the fact-finding mission upon which this Commission 17 was originally founded. 18 Today we find ourselves in Birmingham, 19 Alabama to examine the civil rights impact of the 20 state level immigration enforcement laws here and in 21 other states like Georgia, South Carolina, Utah and 22 Arizona. We are in Alabama today for our first 23 field briefing outside of Washington in many years, 24 and it's apropos for us to be here since the very 25 first field briefing of the Commission was held in 12 1 Alabama in 1958. We're coming full circle. So 2 we're here now in Birmingham for many reasons, but 3 today, most of all, because of Birmingham's history 4 as the center of the civil rights struggle of the 5 past and today it's at the epicenter of a new civil 6 rights struggle by immigrant communities. 7 Yesterday many of us toured to 16th 8 Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil 9 Rights Institute, and it confirmed, in my mind, that 10 Birmingham is indeed a symbol of the fact that 11 oppression can be overcome. 12 In my opinion, the Commission's role in 13 that struggle against oppression is to shine our 14 historic light, not only on the wrongs but upon why 15 and how they have been created so that the President 16 and Congress understand how to dismantle those walls 17 of oppression and open the promise that this country 18 has made to each and every one of us.