Smyrna forum: Americans misinformed about undocumented immigrants

House Bill 87 went into effect Friday after about 30 people gathered Thursday night at in Smyrna for a town hall meeting to discuss immigration in general, as well as the new Georgia law aimed at cracking down on undocumented immigrants.

The event was sponsored by the Cobb Immigrant Alliance, a grassroots organization that aims to dispel myths about undocumented immigrants and promote legislative reforms. 

“Our strategy is we will continue to educate the average American who is largely misinformed or uninformed regarding the whole immigration issue of undocumented immigrants,” Rich Pellegrino, CIA’s executive director told Smyrna-Vinings Patch before the meeting. “To unite them and get them to work together across political lines or racial or cultural lines to work together to solve the real issues in the community.”

A panel of immigration attorneys, ministers and community organizers was there to answer questions from the audience: Pastor Jim Moon, Crosspoint Presbyterian Church; Rev. Lionel Gantt, Cobb Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Helen Kim Ho, executive director of the Asian American Legal Advocacy Center; Uzo Akpele, immigration attorney; and Carlos Garcia, CIA.

"We deliberately don't have anybody that's pro-HB 87 on this panel, as you can tell - I'll tell you up front - because we don't see any benefit at all to HB 87," Pellegrino said.

Many of the issues discussed by the panel reflected the current economic climate.

“America’s lagging behind the rest of the world,” Pellegrino said. “We’re a country of immigrants. We’ve always attracted the productive, the intelligent, the people who want to work hard and so forth and now we’re behind in all aspects because of our restrictive immigration policies. We’re not just talking about labor. We’re talking about all levels.”

Pellegrino also added that it’s commonly thought that immigrants cost American citizen’s money; a theme expressed in a from Smyrna state representative Rich Golick.

“The governor said about HB 87, why we need HB 87,” Pellegrino said. “One is that they (undocumented immigrants) are costing us millions of dollars on health care on schools and so forth. They have no figures. They have no proof of that. I have proof from the Texas State Auditor, from the IRS that undocumented immigrants contributed millions more into the economy than they ever take out in taxes and so forth. These are all independent reports, often by Republicans and conservatives.”

The town hall meeting was diversely attended. A self-described “conservative” Smyrna business owner asked a question about anchor babies. One couple was there because their daughter is dating an undocumented immigrant from Brazil. They explained that they had been uninformed about the issue until it affected them personally.

Ghazal Ahmadi, a student at Kennesaw State University, also attended the meeting. She and her family legally immigrated to the United States from Iran about 10 years ago as religious refugees.

“I feel like I really do appreciate what other immigrants are going through,” she said. “I understand it. I haven’t had it easy, but because I’m younger and I go to school and have a goal, it’s kind of an easier life. But I cannot imagine if you take away that right to go to school.”