An Appeal for Immigrants' and Human Rights

Tim Chadwick, courtesy of the floor, Bethlehem City Council, 11-18-2008

My name is Tim Chadwick.  I currently live at 1415 Monocacy Street in the City.  I come to you today as a member of Lepoco’s America’s Solidarity Group. 

I came to Lehigh in 1971, and lived most of my off campus years at Lehigh in the South Side.  I rented a house for three years from an elderly Italian woman, whose husband had worked at the Steel for 40 years until his death.  She could barely speak English.  I lived in the midst of a melting pot of immigrant workers from throughout Eastern Europe and Latin America.  Most of my neighbors worked at the Steel or related industries.

This City was built by immigrant Moravians and Germans, and has a long history of working class peoples from many diverse cultures living side by side in community.

Over the past several years I traveled to Venezuela and El Salvador.  In the packet you each received there is mention of the Rutillio Grande delegation to El Salvador, which I took part.  I can tell you that these trips were life changing in making me aware of the outside forces that make survival in some Latin American countries virtually impossible.  It is our Federal government’s public policy in trade and economics that plays an integral role in forcing the massive migration that is happening in our country.  I would urge you to read the packet and do your own research into this issue.

We are here today to call on City Council to consider our resolution and packet.  We urge you to take a positive stand for all immigrants’ rights in America. Over eighty cities around the country have adopted ordinances or resolutions to protect immigrant rights from the use of unnecessary local enforcement actions and resources.  We believe that it is not the job of local municipalities like Bethlehem to enforce Federal immigration laws.  We are not concerned with all federal law, only the administrative federal law such as immigration, tax, environmental law that is not customarily enforced by local agencies anyway, and in this case would be purely a selective use of local law enforcement.  If a city wants to enforce immigration law, why not IRS, or EPA or OSHA regulations?  When was the last time a city police official arrested someone for violating safe workplace statutes? 

We believe that it is in the best interest of your constituents that you take a moral and legal stand for the individual rights of all Bethlehem’s citizens. These perilous economic times, as well as some of the extreme hatreds that have been growing in neighboring communities of Eastern Pennsylvania, call for you to confirm that Bethlehem stands for individual rights of all its residents and that you do not support the profiling of people simply because of their ethnic or perceived immigrant status.

We look forward to working with the Mayor and City Council to take the necessary steps to adopt a resolution that would protect the human rights of all the good people who live, work, and contribute to our community. Protecting all our citizens from local law enforcement resources being utilized in the enforcement of Federal immigration laws is the right thing for you to do.  Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today.