Renegade Latino

On Monday May 1st, 2006, beginning at noon and lasting throughout the day, there will be an informational rally held on the OSU main Oval to distribute information about current immigration laws that are in Congress. Learn about why Americans all over the country are boycotting and taking to the streets to protest the proposed bill. Find out about how this proposed bill is inhumane to immigrants and how it may even land YOU in jail.

The main purpose of this rally at the OSU main oval is to unite the community at OSU who is against this bill and to educate those who may not know as much about what is going on. While many of our fellow Americans are out protesting, we wanted to bring that same fight to the OSU campus so that our fellow students can see first hand the force fighting the proposed bill. We understand that there will be various protests going on throughout the city and we want to work along side those protests. Our goal is to make as large an impact on May 1st as we possibly can, whether by having people attend our rally or other protests.

Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to show some of the points of the bill which we are fighting. Below are just a few points of the bill that stick out the most. To put it shortly, the bill is written in a manner that may be applied far too broadly. Many of its provisions could end up punishing many well intentioned American citizens. Please read below to see what the bill has to say. The entire bill HR 4437 can be found by clicking here

1. “(1) PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES- Whoever– … (C) assists, encourages, directs, or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States, or to attempt to reside in or remain in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to reside in or remain in the United States;”

With this passage anyone or any organization who assists an illegal immigrant would be committing an illegal act punishable with prison time. This would effect countless people and organizations, such as hospitals or churches who assist those in their neighborhoods. Those who help the disadvantaged by providing temporary housing, for example, would be in clear violation of this passage since they would be assisting them “to reside in or remain in the United States”

2. “(1) PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES- Whoever– … (D) transports or moves a person in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to enter or be in the United States, where the transportation or movement will aid or further in any manner the person’s illegal entry into or illegal presence in the United States;”

This passage would make it illegal to give an illegal immigrant a ride to work or really, because of the broad use of language such as “further in any manner the person’s … illegal presence in the United States”, give an illegal immigrant a ride or in any way transport him anywhere. Maybe they need a ride to the doctor or to a lawyer and so you give them a ride only to find yourself committing a criminal act.

3. “(1) PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES- Whoever– … (E) harbors, conceals, or shields from detection a person in the United States knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to be in the United States;”

This passage would make it a illegal to not tell an agent of DHS that a person is an illegal alien if they know that a certain person is. This is harmful as it forces people such as doctors, priests, or other trusted people to tell law enforcement about illegal immigrants. Also, if YOU know any illegal immigrants then you could be held criminally responsible for “concealing” them.

The following are the Criminal Penalties associated with the above mentioned offenses.

4. “(2) CRIMINAL PENALTIES- A person who violates the provisions of paragraph (1) shall– (A) except as provided in subparagraphs (D) through (H), in the case where the offense was not committed for commercial advantage, profit, or private financial gain, be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;”

This would mean if you give just one illegal alien a ride to work for free you could face up to five years in prison and/or a fine.

5. “(2) CRIMINAL PENALTIES- A person who violates the provisions of paragraph (1) shall– (B) except as provided in subparagraphs (C) through (H), where the offense was committed for commercial advantage, profit, or private financial gain– (i) in the case of a first violation of this subparagraph, be imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;”

This would apply to, for example, someone who may give an illegal immigrant a ride to work everyday in exchange for some gas money. That person could get up to 20 years in prison and/or a fine for just the first ride (read #6 below).

6. “(2) CRIMINAL PENALTIES- A person who violates the provisions of paragraph (1) shall– (B) except as provided in subparagraphs (C) through (H), where the offense was committed for commercial advantage, profit, or private financial gain– (ii) for any subsequent violation, be imprisoned for not less than 3 years nor more than 20 years, or fined under title 18, United States Code, or both;”

Continuing with the above example of someone who may give an illegal immigrant a ride to work everyday in exchange for some gas money, for every ride after the first, that person may have a minimum of 3 years in prison and possibly up to 20 years in prison and/or a fine.

7. “(c) Seizure and Forfeiture- (1) IN GENERAL- Any property, real or personal, that has been used to commit or facilitate the commission of a violation of this section, the gross proceeds of such violation, and any property traceable to such property or proceeds, shall be subject to forfeiture.”

So now the person above who was giving an illegal immigrant a ride to work will get his vehicle taken away and any other property “used to commit or facilitate the commission of a violation of this section” will also be taken away.

Moving on from this section, I would like to bring to light section 223 which focuses on the Institutional Removal program (IRP). For those unfamiliar with the IRP, please read the following passage taken directly from Section 223(a).

“(1) IN GENERAL- The Department of Homeland Security shall continue to operate and implement the program known as the Institutional Removal Program (IRP) which– (A) identifies removable criminal aliens in Federal and State correctional facilities; (B) ensures such aliens are not released into the community; and (C) removes such aliens from the United States after the completion of their sentences.”

Basically what IRP does is find the illegal immigrants in the prison system and make sure they “are not released into the community” and then deport them as soon as their sentence has been completed. (B) of Section 223 is as follows.

8. “(b) Authorization for Detention After Completion of State or Local Prison Sentence- Law enforcement officers of a State or political subdivision of a State have the authority to– (1) hold an illegal alien for a period of up to 14 days after the alien has completed the alien’s State prison sentence in order to effectuate the transfer of the alien to Federal custody when the alien is removable or not lawfully present in the United States; or”

So once an illegal immigrant has finished serving his sentence, he is still detained. In this instance, his detention is for a maximum of 14 days until the alien can be transferred in Federal custody. Notice that this ends in “or”, part 2 is below.

9. “(b) Authorization for Detention After Completion of State or Local Prison Sentence- Law enforcement officers of a State or political subdivision of a State have the authority to– (2) issue a detainer that would allow aliens who have served a State prison sentence to be detained by the State prison until personnel from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement can take the alien into custody.”

In this instance the alien has finished his sentence but again is still not set free. But notice that no time frame is put into writing meaning that an alien could possibly be detained indefinitely while waiting for “personnel from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement” to take them into custody. Again, the writing here is simply too vague and it would seem likely that it would not be high up on the priority list to tend to these detained aliens since they are in prison seeing as how the government hasn’t been able to tend to the millions of illegal immigrants in the country now. This could lead to a disastrous situation with a backlog of aliens simply being detained in prisons.

Again, these are just a few pieces of HR 4437 that should be brought to light. The entire document is over 43,00 words long and contains many other provisions that are at best questionable if not down right inhumane. If Congress is going to pass a bill regarding immigration, it should not treat illegal immigrants and those who offer them humanitarian aid as criminals with such harsh punishment. We are all human beings and deserve to be treated as such. President Bush has even said “One thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking about human beings, decent human beings that need to be treated with respect,” We cannot let this bill pass, we cannot dehumanize the illegal immigrants in this country. We must stand up and fight.

Please stand up and fight with us. May 1, 2006 - The Great American Boycott. Thank you for your time, God Bless.