June 29, 2007
Omaha World-Herald
Cindy Gonzalez and Leia Baez

Embarrassed. Disappointed.

Thrilled, yet not totally satisfied.

Midlanders reacted in various ways Thursday to the U.S. Senate action that effectively buried an immigration overhaul until after the 2008 election. But one thing was certain on whichever side they fell: Emotions ran deep.

"At this point, they need to shut down the borders completely," said North Platte gas station owner Mitch Wagner, 31. "We just allowed anyone to come here because it was good for business — cheap labor — and we let it go too far."

Rebecca Valdez of Omaha’s Chicano Awareness Center was among voices on the other side of the debate. She said she was "dumbfounded" at the influence that anti-immigrant forces have had on Capitol Hill.

"We’ve got to fight the fear tactic the other side is using," Valdez said. "It’s based on racism and fear."

Few topics have raised emotions as high as illegal immigration, said Don Blackford of the Harrison County chapter of the Iowa Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, a citizen watch group known for deploying members to watch the U.S.-Mexican border.

Blackford said that while he was "tickled pink" at the Senate vote, the work of the Minutemen is unfinished.

"We’re all very happy up here today," Blackford said. "However, we cannot let our guard down. We know the other side is going to be bringing it up after the 2008 elections."

Even before the Senate completed the voting that effectively blocked efforts to revamp the nation’s immigration laws, activists on both sides of the immigration debate plotted their next move.

In Lincoln, a student delegation led by the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest planned to deliver another batch of pro-immigration overhaul postcards to federal lawmakers.

Appleseed’s Darcy Tromanhauser said the Senate vote, while disappointing, was merely a setback.

"The issue doesn’t go away," she said. "We can’t stand by as bad laws hurt good people."

Meanwhile, immigrants and family members braced for what is yet to come.

Jonathan Castro, 19, is a high school graduate who has just saved enough money to pay for technical school. Because he came into the country illegally at age 5, financial aid is limited or inaccessible.

For him, the Senate move was a letdown, although not altogether a surprise.

"It just keeps on going back and forth," said Castro. "It would be best to get an answer."

The Omaha teen has a backup plan in case the government does not act to change immigration laws. He might move to Japan so he can use his coming training in the automotive industry.

"People don’t seem to mind foreigners there as much as they do here," Castro said.

Omahan Joe Wood, whose life also is on hold as a result of immigration laws, sighed at the Senate vote. He is a U.S. citizen who married Laura, an illegal immigrant. They have two young daughters.

The couple hired an Omaha lawyer and in May traveled to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico in the hope of adjusting Laura’s status. Their dream backfired as she was not allowed to return.

"America has overlooked the cost to families," said Wood. "Our politicians are out of touch."

Bill Dahlheim, 75, of Gretna Neb., thinks otherwise.

He said illegal immigration should stop and people living in this country should adhere to the rules and speak English.

"I just don’t think it’s right," he said. "It’s cost us a lot of money to hire Spanish teachers. My dad came here from Germany and he had to learn English. I’m not putting any nationality down, but we need some law to follow."

As the Senate voted, an Omaha mission group was in Guatemala. Among those they visited were families of immigrants working in Nebraska, some illegally.

Susan Naatz, pastoral minister at St. Vincent de Paul Church, who has been part of such mission trips in the past, was embarrassed by the Senate vote.

In Guatemala, she said, flower petals are strewn at the feet of Americans. Families spend a week’s earnings on a meal for the visitors.

"People don’t want to leave their families," she said, but they do so because of the abject poverty and poor education opportunities.

"The U.S. has prided itself in reaching out to countries and people in need," she said. "I think we’ve lost sight of who we are as Americans."

Esther Mejia, 38, heard about the Senate action while dining at a south Omaha restaurant.

"Something needs to be done," she said. "Our people have given so much to this society and it’s unfortunate that our government isn’t doing anything to make it work."

Nearby, Cuban immigrant turned U.S. citizen Luis Canal said more Latinos need to step up to help push for immigration changes.

"The ones whose parents were immigrants but they were born here should be helping and they’re not," he said. "This country needs to pass something. Without immigrants from Latin America and specifically Mexico, the economy will suffer."

To Manuel Alferes, a restaurant owner in south Omaha, the matter is "irritating" on many fronts.

He is an immigrant, too, now a citizen, and wants to see law and order. Providing a path to citizenship, he said, would let people come out of the shadows and pay taxes.

"We need to know who our neighbors are," Alferes said.