Our Young Democratic Candidate Jim Esch is holding a press conferance this morning outside the Juan Diego Center in South Omaha.
Here’s the press release:
Press Conference on June 5, 2006 at 10 am
Why does Lee Terry want to send the Juan Diego employees and volunteers to jail?
Democratic congressional candidate, Jim Esch, will hold a press conference Monday, June 5, 2006 at 10 AM outside the Juan Diego Center (5211 South 31st Street). Esch will praise President Bush’s visit to Omaha and the Juan Diego Center operated by Catholic Charities, and discuss immigration reform legislation. President Bush has selected the Juan Diego Center for his visit, yet under the House bill supported by Lee Terry, it is precisely this type of center’s employees and volunteers who would become federal criminals, subject to criminal prosecution and to prison terms of up to five years for offering services they now provide to immigrants. Esch will call on Congress to resolve the immigration debate through comprehensive immigration reform, and will pledge to work with the President and members of both parties. The Juan Diego Center is a community center that offers bilingual counseling, support groups for Hispanic women, a food pantry, immigration assistance and micro-business training for more than 14,000 people annually. For media inquiries, contact Jim Esch at (402) 346-0109.
-I’m Live Blogging it, so I’ll let you know more as it happens-
Post Press-Conferance Update #1
Wow, what a speech! With all the press there, hopefully there will be some good coverage. I am just going to include a few of my favorite parts…
“The Center not only gives immigrants bread but helps them start bakeries, it not only helps Spanish-speakers with immigration forms but it teaches them English, and it doesn’t just help families catch up on heating bills, it teaches them to manage a budget. ”
…
“Currently, humanitarian groups are not required to ascertain legal status of an individual prior to providing assistance. However, Section 202 of the House bill could place volunteers and employees of places like the Juan Diego Center and hundreds of centers like it throughout the country at risk of criminal prosecution. Is this what Americans want? I believe this is neither morally right nor remotely practical. ”
Post Press-Conferance Update #2
Here’s a photo I took with my camera… (pretty low resolution though)
Post Press-Conferance Update #3
The Jim Esch weblog (which is pretty cool) has more of the speech posted…
@jimesch.org
Post Press-Conferance Update #4
Here’s the story on WOWT
Wow, it’s great to see a Democrat in Nebraska actually using this issue (and Bush’s appearance) to their benefit, particularly since it shines a light on real families that Republicans in the House would rather see destroyed than integrated fully into the American way of life.
Lee Terry, Jeff Fortenberry, and Tom Osborne should all be ashamed of the lack of compassion (and plain old common sense) to which their unnecessary and politically-motivated criminalization efforts speak.
Way to go, Mr. Esch.
The last time I checked “illegal” meant a person had broken the law. Why does Jim support ignoring people who break the law? Has Jim broken some laws that he would like us to ignore?
Troy, so you support sending teachers, priests, nuns, and other citizens of this country to jail simply for helping the immigrants who are already here? It’s that kind of short-sighted policymaking that continues to destroy our ability to effectively fight real crime.
Hey Dave, they broke The Law. We should all just do what the righteous government says, regardless of what’s right. Remember – don’t think, just obey.
as i take it, Jim isn’t supporting amnesty, he’s supporting a common-sense approach to a problem of great importance. I think he’s saying the rhetoric needs to lose to the facts. He’s saying just what the US Catholic Bishops have been saying, which is that section 202, and many other parts of the house bill, are wildly immoral, illogical, and need to be dropped from any immigration reform.
Lee Terry supports all those sections and the full house bill, which puts him in opposition to the vast majority of americans, the catholic bishops, even the president.
Obviously the DNC/DCCC fooled you into believing this bill would make criminals of social workers. If you actually knew the details of the bill, you would know this was not true. Any House Member who supported it would in effect make criminals of his or her staff. DUH??? Why would anyone do that?
Here is the letter from HR 4437’s authors to the US Conference on Catholic Bishops:
http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/bishopsimmltr4506.pdf
thx for telling me information on jim esch i think it is right to help hispanic people even though i don’t know what happen to guys right here on this site but thx anyway….