Obama Needs To Address Immigration As A National Issue
Frank Gilanelli is a proud American. He says he plays by the rules and respects the government.
But he doesn’t like it when other people, well, don’t.
The small business owner was on his way to grab something to eat, just on a break from work, when he heard activists chanting “keep that hate out of our state” at a rally at Independence Hall. That’s when he decided that, despite the dozens of activists surrounding him, it was his duty to express his First Amendment right in support for Arizona’s contentious immigration bill, which allows police to check one’s immigration status with based on one’s skin color or accent, but only after reasonable cause.
“Everybody’s welcome, everybody’s welcome in the United States…come through the front door, not the back door,” he says.
Gilanelli says he’s also in support of a similar measure for Pennsylvania, because people need to respect laws for citizens to feel safely governed.
He may be getting what he asked. A few weeks ago, PW reported about legislation, first introduced by Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), that is modeled after Arizona’s and “would provide state and local law enforcement with full authority to apprehend Pennsylvania’s estimated 140,000 illegal aliens…” according to his website.
Some aspects of the bill seem blatantly racist, and in response to it, immigrants, state officials and reform activists held a rally to condemn the bill today, and then marched from Independence Hall to the Federal Building to demand action from the Obama administration.
Protesters rally at Independence Hall in support of reforming immigration.
“This is not a state issue. This is a national issue, and Washington has to do something about it,” exclaimed Wendell Young IV, President of the UFCW Local 1776 union.
And that seems to be the only issue that Gilanelli agrees with. Meanwhile, activists are calling for the Obama administration to work on immigration now, instead of during an election.
But the one-man army of Gilanelli says he felt attacked at the event.
“I was just voicing my opinion. These people, the media, too. They’re biased.”
When he shouted for immigrants to come into the country legally, everyone blankly stared at the man. Some booed, others shouted. And after a few moments, mostly everyone exploded in indignation.
He was speaking to the media when the Rev. Nate Walker of the First Unitarian Church cut him off for a little bit of TV-news glamour, masquerading a desperate plea for attention by suggesting everyone should just love each other.
“Reasonable suspicion is not a legal right in the Constitution,” the Reverend said.
Still, Gilanelli wants people to know he is for immigration, but legal immigration. If there were no consequences for breaking laws, he says, no one would feel safe.
He also says that, most significantly to America’s social cohesion is nationalizing concrete immigration reform. While protesters agreed, they also described many obstacles they must first endure to become legal.
Frank Gilanelli is not even from Philadelphia. He’s actually from New Jersey and enjoys crashing pro-immigration reform rallies with his anti-immigrant rhetoric. When asked if he thinks the government should make it easier for people to come here legally, he said “isn’t it easy now?” When someone responded that it’s extremely difficult, he said “Then yeah.” He obviously doesn’t know how the immigration process works and should do some research before spewing hate.
Someone should let Gilanelli and PW readers know it’s not easy to come to the U.S. unless you’re already rich. Backlogs for the few who even qualify to wait in the famous “line” to get into the U.S. extend beyond 20 years. U.S. citizens are routinely torn apart from their undocumented parents, children, and spouses, even if those family members have lived here for decades. So much for the American dream. It’s a safe bet that anyone who insists that people “come through the front door” and that the U.S. welcomes anyone who does hasn’t the slightest clue what’s actually in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
This country hasn’t been friendly to immigrants for decades … we’re taught Emma Lazarus’s poem in school but never that the roots of modern immigration policy lie in the nativist Immigration Act of 1924 that shut the doors to Ellis Island because too many Jews and Sicilians came through them.
The legal immigration system is a labyrinthine trap designed to ensnare anyone who can’t afford an attorney, and even many who can. Immigration bureaucrats here and abroad believe they’re on the front lines of a neverending war, defending Americans against the dangerous nannies and vegetable pickers waiting to work 70 hour weeks for sub-minimum wages under constant threat of deportation. It’s a bizarro world that most Americans, including most of the liberals who read this paper, have no idea exists. It’s hard to have an informed debate about immigration policy when the public–and gatekeepers in the press–have no idea what the immigration laws actually say.
“They don’t do that in Arizona.” Seriously? How else would this Arizona law work?! I don’t understand how we’re in 2010 yet something like this can be passed. The Phoenix Tourism website says, “Our history in Phoenix is as colorful as the ancient peoples, immigrants and settlers who shaped it.” Now 17+ states want to add a law similar to the one in Arizona? I’m afraid of what’s going to happen in the next few years. Me: I am a 26 year-old New Jersey BORN Colombiano. I am thankful for the opportunities that I worked hard for, but if this country doesn’t get it together, I fear for everyone.
[...] Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City, which, among other topics, the nation’s mayors discussed immigration reform, improving public schools and evaluating the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of [...]
Rafael learn English. Frank Gilanelli for president. It wasn’t Frank’s fault you were born in Mexico. Carlos Slim is the richest man in the world. Look it up. He’s from Mexico. I see him here in the U.S. all the time. Work harder.