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Immigration symposium tackles local issues

Three documentaries introduce symposium on controversy and conflict over Latino immigration

by Sarah Mirk

Most Rosenfield Symposiums are composed primarily of esteemed lecturers and panel discussions. Instead, next week's symposium covering the trends, issues and widely differing perspectives surrounding the rising tide of Latino immigration to the United States will kick off with campus showings of three documentary films.

"For many of us, concepts like the border, undocumented immigrants and domestic workers seem abstract or unfamiliar,? symposium organizer Anna Murphey '06 wrote in an email to the S&B. Using these films, Murphey and the other organizers said they hope to give Grinnellians context about some of the basic local and national issues which make up the "big picture" of recent immigration to the United States.

Friday's film, Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border, will be especially pertinent to one of the main themes running through the week-long symposium: the controversies and sometimes violent conflicts arising from illegal immigration. "An average of 1 million undocumented immigrants cross the southern U.S. border," organizer Jenny Dale '06 said in an e-mail. "Undocumented immigration is not an issue that can be ignored."

With knowledge and context from the weekend's documentaries, the organizers hope Grinnell students and staff will be able to attend the most anxiously anticipated event of the symposium. On Tuesday night, the symposium will host a debate between Mark Grey, director of Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration and Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group which has been making national headlines after committing itself to ending the "mobs of ILLEGAL aliens who endlessly stream across U.S. borders" through direct civilian action at the U.S./Mexico border, according to the group's website.

"I hope that students can get an appreciation of what is going on at the U.S./Mexico border and to be able to make the connections to how it affects Iowa and the rest of the United States," said Luis Fernandez, Sociology. "Immigration is a timely issue right now, since Congress is getting ready to start debating President Bush's proposal for a potential amnesty plan and more funding for the militarization of the border," he added.? "It is a good time for us to pause and think through the intricacies and implications of these issues."

The symposium will finish up with another effort to place the issue of immigration in the minds and hands of Grinnell students. Arizona Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema (D) will lead an "activism workshop" dealing with what role states can and should play in the debates, as well as the intersection of immigration policies and human rights.

The first documentary film will run tonight in the Forum South Lounge at 4:15 p.m. Filmmaker Ray Ybara will be present for commentary.

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