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As the nations capital buzzed about President Trumps latest tweets and political fate, a Catholic cardinal who is one of the hierarchys most visible champions of undocumented immigrants blasted Republicans for ignoring immigration reform and inflicting cruelty on innocent people.

Now think about it, especially right now, with apparent one-party rule in our government: Congress and the president could pass comprehensive immigration reform tomorrow if they wanted to, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark told an audience of journalists meeting in Brooklyn on May 17. They could bring nearly 12 million people out of the shadows if they wanted to.

Because after all and lets be serious this isnt about border security. This is about being attentive to the reality of people who are already in our communities, most of whom are functioning even in their marginal shadow existence and making contributions to their communities, said Tobin at a conference marking the churchs annual World Communications Day.

A person unbound by Christian charity, he added, would say that you really have to believe in inflicting cruelty on innocent people to choose to support the policies (on immigration) weve seen in recent months, while possessing the power to change the law.

Last October, Pope Francis stunned church observers and Tobin himself when he named Tobin, then archbishop of Indianapolis, a cardinal. Francis next transferred Tobin to Newark, a much larger archdiocese in terms of population, but one that had never had a cardinal.

The moves were viewed as putting a churchman who is very much in the pastoral mold of Francis himself in a more prominent and influential role.

Tobin has always made it a priority to help the marginalized, and in 2015 he clashed with then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence now Donald Trumps vice president over Pences effort to stop the settlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. Tobin ignored Pences order and continued to resettle refugees who had gone through a rigorous screening process.

Tobins move to the New York media market, plus Trumps harsh rhetoric on immigrants, have combined to give the cardinals statements and actions even greater resonance.

That was demonstrated in March when Tobin joined an interfaith delegation accompanying Catalino Guerrero, a 59-year-old Mexican native who had lived and worked in the U.S. for much of his life after entering illegally as a young man, to a hearing to determine if Guerrero would be deported.

Guerrero, who is ill, was eventually granted an extension.

Tobin said on March 17 that one purpose of that effort was to put a face on people who are frequently dehumanized or simply viewed indifferently, if at all, by the rest of society.

Racism today is not a bunch of people riding on horses dressed in bedsheets, burning crosses, and annoying people, he said. Racism, he said, is just not seeing. Or, if you see, you dont understand.

But Tobin said the other purpose of the demonstration on Guerreros behalf was to put a face on us and the call to solidarity that is, on the witness of people of faith.

When I accompanied Mr. Guerrero to his deportation hearing, its impossible to deny that I brought with me the trappings of the office [that] Pope Francis sprang on me last fall, Tobin said.

Whatever those trappings are, he continued, delivering an implicit challenge to his peers in the church, it doesnt change the nature of grace. What if every cardinal accompanied an undocumented person who crossed our paths to the deportation hearing? What if every bishop did? Every pastor? Every mayor?

Of course, he said, these arent the people in our society who have been vested with real power to make a positive difference in our countrys immigration policy. Those would be the members of our Congress and our president.

Via Religion News Service.

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New Jersey Cardinal Blasts GOP for Ignoring Immigration Reform - Sojourners

Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., issued a strong call on Wednesday for American Catholic leaders to resist the immigration stance of the Trump administration, saying you really have to believe in inflicting cruelty on innocent people to choose to support the policies weve seen in recent months.

Tobin, a Pope Francis appointee, urged Catholic and political leaders alike to get involved in the defense of immigrants.

He asked, What if every cardinal accompanied a person who crossed our paths to a deportation hearing? Every bishop? Every mayor?

Tobin challenged people to see immigrants as they are, and not as distorted stereotypes, saying that by doing so, we show our face.

His remarks came as part of a May 17 celebration of World Communications Day hosted by the Diocese of Brooklyn and its DeSales Media Group, the dioceses communications and technology arm. (The DeSales Media Group is also a Crux sponsor.)

Tobin has long been among the most outspoken bishops on the immigration issue. He made news in March when he went along with a 59-year-old grandfather facing deportation, Catalino Guerrero, to a federal court for his hearing.

Tobin talked about the case in his keynote speech on Wednesday.

He said that his accompaniment of the man wasnt a conscious strategy but praying with him and his family and with other religious groups in New Jersey these actions taken together provided a lens for others to understand the events, and inspire them to action.

Because of the essentially one-party rule by Republicans at the moment, he said, Congress and the president could pass comprehensive immigration reform if they wanted to.

But until that happens, Tobin doesnt want people to sit back and watch things unfold, but rather talks about a call to faith and how it can motivate people to act.

The day he went with Guerrero, Gods grace broke through for at least two reasons according to Tobin.

It put a face on people who are frequently dehumanized secondly, it put a face on us and the call to solidarity, he said.

He said that day was an act of compassion on my part, but for some it was an act of hope that the Church, the body of Christ has a right to a voice in the public squareand we must claim that voice.

Tobin said that he doesnt believe the media should be a punching bag for people, but challenged them to report the news in a straight-forward fashion rather than ascribe to the fear-based idea that if it bleeds, it leads.

One week after his inauguration, President Donald Trump moved on his promise to restrict immigration and deport people already here without documentation. His first executive order on the subject caused chaos at airports as those attempting to enforce the order were not clear about green card holders and people with visas from the countries explicitly banned. There were also large protests against the order around the countrys airports.

The U.S. bishops were part of that quick pushback.

Bishop Joe S. Vsquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the Committee on Migration, stated: We strongly disagree with the Executive Orders halting refugee admissions. We believe that now more than ever, welcoming newcomers and refugees is an act of love and hope.

After the initial order was overturned by a federal district judge, Trump signed a second Executive Order March 6 removing Iraq from the list of banned nations and changing the indefinite ban on Syrian immigration. It also specified that people from those nations with valid visas were still able to come to the U.S.

Once again a restraining order preventing the measure from taking effect was put into place, and is currently still being reviewed by the courts.

Although the intensity of the opposition to the executive orders fell out of the headlines, the U.S. bishops continued to be publicly opposed in their own press releases and interviews with the press. Some even notched up their language in describing the new atmosphere the administration has created.

For example, on Telemundo on March 19, Cardinal Blas Cupich of Chicago said, I am here today to assure you that we stand with those made fearful by the hatred expressed and threats made during the past year toward immigrants and refugees.

The other part of Trumps vision is massive deportations of people currently in the U.S. without documentation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was newly emboldened, newly empowered according to the New York Times by Trumps removal of the rules under Obama keeping them focused only on dangerous criminals.

The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said the president wanted to take the shackles off the agents, and that seems to have cleared the path for ICE to go after anyone suspected of being in the country illegally regardless of their lack of criminal history, age, health or family circumstances.

The NYT reported in February that during the dramatic ICE arrest raids ICE even bystanders are being arrested and are known as collateral arrests.

At a Vatican sponsored conference in California earlier this year, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez stated bluntly, Theyre playing with peoples emotions and toying with their lives and futures, and that is not right.

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Tobin calls Trump immigration policies 'cruelty on innocent people' - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Introduction

Immigration has been a touchstone of the U.S. political debate for decades, as policymakers must weigh competing economic, security, and humanitarian concerns. Congress has been unable to reach an agreement on comprehensive immigration reform for years, effectively moving some major policy decisions into the executive and judicial branches of government, and fueling debate in the halls of state and municipal governments. Meanwhile, the fates of an estimated eleven million undocumented immigrants in the country, as well as rules for legal immigration, lie in the balance.

The immigration debate moved to the fore once again with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, who made the issue a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Shortly after taking office, President Trump signed executive orders on border security, interior enforcement, and refugees, which attempt to follow through on some of his controversial campaign pledges. Some U.S. cities, states, and individuals have challenged the orders in court.

Immigrants comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. population: someforty-three millionout of a total of about 321 million people, according to Census Bureau data from 2015. Together, immigrants and their U.S.-born children make up about 27 percent of U.S. inhabitants. The figure represents a steady rise from 1970, when there were fewer than ten million immigrants in the United States. But there are proportionally fewer immigrants today than in 1890, when foreign-born residents comprised 15 percent of the population.

Illegal immigration.The undocumented population is about eleven million andhas leveled offsince the 2008 economic crisis, which led some to return to their home countries and discouraged others from coming to the United States. In February 2017, Customs and Border Protectionreporteda 36 percent drop in crossings from the year before, which some attribute to the Trump administrations policies.

More than half of the undocumented have lived in the country for more than a decade; nearly one third are the parents of U.S.-born children, according to the Pew Research Center. Central American asylum seekers, many of whom are minors who have fled violence in their home countries, make up agrowing shareof those who cross the U.S.-Mexico border. These immigrants havedifferent legal rightsfrom Mexican nationals in the United States: under a2008 antihuman trafficking law, minors from noncontiguous countries have a right to a deportation hearing before being returned to their home countries.

Though many of the policies that aim to reduce unlawful immigration focus on enforced border security, individuals who arrive to the United States legally and overstay their visas comprise asignificant portionof the undocumented population. According to the Center for Migration Studies, individuals who overstayed their visas haveoutnumberedthose who arrived by crossing the border illegally by six hundred thousand since 2007.

Legal immigration. The United States granted more than one million individualslegal permanent residencyin 2015, nearly two-thirds of whom were admitted based on family reunification. Other categories included: employment-based preferences (14 percent), refugees (11 percent), diversity (5 percent), and asylees (3 percent). In 2016 there were more than four million applicants on theState Departments waiting list for immigrant visas[PDF].

Hundreds of thousands of individuals work legally in the United States under various types of nonimmigrant visas. In 2016, the United Statesgranted[PDF] more than 180,000 visas to high-skilled workers, known as H-1B visas, and more than 200,000 visas to temporary workers in agriculture and other industries. The issuance of new H-1B visas is capped at 85,000 per year.

Immigrants made up roughly17 percent of the U.S. workforcein 2014, according to Pew Research Center; of those, around two-thirds were in the country legally. Collectively, immigrants made up 45 percent of domestic employees; they also comprised large portions of the workforce in U.S. manufacturing (36 percent), agriculture (33), and accommodation (32). Another Pew study found that without immigrants, the U.S. workforce isexpected to declinefrom 173.2 million in 2015 to 165.6 million in 2035; the workforce is expected to grow to 183.2 million if immigration levels remain steady, according to the report.

A2016 Gallup pollfound that 72 percent of Americans considered immigration a good thing for the United States, and as many as 84 percent supported a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants if they meet certain requirements. Aseparate Gallup pollfound that among Republicans, support for a path to citizenship (76 percent) was higher than support for a proposed border wall (62 percent).

Congress has debated numerous pieces of immigration reform over the last two decades, some considered comprehensive, others piecemeal. Comprehensive immigration reform refers to omnibus legislation that attempts to address the following range of issues: demand for high-skilled and low-skilled labor; the legal status of the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the country; border security; and interior enforcement.

The last time legislators came close to significant immigration reform was in 2013, when the Democrat-led Senatepassed a comprehensive reformbill that would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants as well as tough border security provisions. The bill did not receive a vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Barack Obama.President Obama took several actions to provide temporary legal relief to many undocumented immigrants. In 2012, his administration began a program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), that offers renewable, two-year deportation deferrals and work permits to undocumented immigrants who had arrived to the United States as children and had no criminal records. Obama characterized the move as a "stopgap measure" and urged Congress to pass theDream Act, legislation first introduced in 2001 that would have benefited many of the same people. As of September 2016, more than750,000 peoplehad taken advantage of DACA.

In 2014, Obama attempted to extend similar benefits to as many as five million undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. However, more than two dozen U.S. states sued the administration, alleging that the program, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), violated federal immigration law and the U.S. Constitution. A Texas federal judge blocked the program in 2015, and theSupreme Court effectively killed itin 2016.

Donald J. Trump.Trump made immigration and national securitysignature issuesof his presidential campaign, often staking out controversial positions. During his first few weeks in office, he signed several executive orders attempting to follow through on some of his campaign pledges. The first, which focused onborder security, instructed federal agencies to construct a physical wall to obtain complete operational control of the U.S. border with Mexico. The second, which focused on interior enforcement, broadened definitions of those unauthorized immigrantsprioritized for removal, ordered increases in enforcement personnel and removal facilities, and moved to restrict federal funds from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, which in some cases limit their cooperation with federal immigration officials. This rule also expands the application of "expedited removal" to anyone who cannot prove they have been in the United States for two years, allowing them to be removed without a court hearing. The third, which focused onterrorism prevention, banned nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the United States for at least ninety days; blocked nationals from Syria indefinitely; and suspended the U.S. refugee program for 120 days.

The actions, particularly the ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, drew widespread protests and legal challenges from individuals, cities, and states. In February 2017, a federal judge in Washington State imposed a nationwide restraining order on the so-called travel ban, ruling that the plaintiff states, Washington and Minnesota, had been injured by it and were likely to win their lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. After an appeals court affirmed the ruling, the Trump administration issued a revisedorderthat, among other things, dropped Iraq from the list of affected countries, removed a provision giving preferential treatment to religious minorities (which was seen by critics as a way to exclude Muslims), and excluded those that already had U.S. visas. Additionally, the ban on Syrians was reduced to 120 days. In March, afederal judge in Hawaiiimposed a temporary restraining order on this order.

President Trump lowered the annual cap of refugees admitted to the United States from 110,000 to 50,000, and his orders may also make it more difficult for individuals to seek asylum. According to U.S. figures,more than 83,000 people[PDF], many of whom wereunaccompanied minorsfrom Central America, filed for asylum in 2015. The new executive orders call for an amended questioning process for those seeking asylum, intended to vet for fraudulent answers. Experts say this change could allow immigration officers to be tougher in interpreting standards for asylum. Parents in the United States who pay smugglers to bring their children north could also face legal action, including deportation, under the executive orders.

Statesvary widelyin how they treat unauthorized immigrants (or anyone suspected of being unauthorized). Some states, like California, allow undocumented immigrants to apply for drivers licenses, receive in-state tuition at universities, and obtain other benefits. At the other end of the spectrum, other states, like Arizona, have passed laws permitting police to question people about their immigration status.

The federal government is generally responsible for enforcing immigration laws, but itmay delegatesome immigration-control duties to state and local law enforcement. However, the degree to which local officials are obliged to cooperate with federal authorities is a subject of intense debate. Proponents of tougher immigration enforcement have labeled state and local jurisdictions that limit their cooperation with federal authorities as sanctuary cities. There is no official definition or count of sanctuary cities, but the Immigrant Legal Resource Center identifiesmore than six hundred countieswith such policies.

The Obama administrations enforcement practices drew criticism from the left and the right. Some immigrant advocacy groups criticized his administration for overseeing theremovalof more than three million people during his eight-year tenure, a figure that outpaced the administrations of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Many Republicans said the administration was soft on enforcement in narrowing its removal efforts to undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes.

President Trump decried sanctuary cities throughout his campaign and has issued executive orders to block federal funding to such municipalities and to reinstate a controversial program, known as Secure Communities, in which state and local police provide fingerprints of suspects to federal immigration authorities, and hand over individuals presumed to be in the country illegally. He also ordered the expansion of enforcement partnerships between federal, state, and local agencies. Several cities havefiled lawsuitschallenging Trumps attempt to block federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions.

Experts say the prospect for comprehensive immigration reform is dim given President Trumps positions and general political divisions in Washington. There is no appetite in the Republican party to try to go down the comprehensive [immigration policy reform] road again, says CFRsEdward Alden. Some lawmakers may attempt to take a piecemeal approach, starting with enforcement measures, but bipartisan support for cherry picking policies is unlikely, he says.

However, one area of immigration policy that could see congressional action is the H1B program. Democratic and Republican lawmakers haveexpressed interestin reforming the program, which critics say has been abused by companies to outsource skilled labor and cut costs. In March 2017, the Trump administration announced it would temporarily suspend a program to fast-track H1B applications.

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The US Immigration Debate - Council on Foreign Relations

Investigative Reporter Laura Geller shows how an immigrant in this country illegally changed one local man's life.

Immigration reform has become a hot-button issue dividing the country. Politicians, lawyers, and activists give their opinions, but it's not often we hear personal stories related to the topic.

An immigrant, who came to the United States illegally, changed the life of a father in Virginia Beach on March 30, 2007.

I remember all of it, Ray Tranchant said. I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

Tessa Tranchant

Tranchant's 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, and her friend, 17-year-old Allison Kunhardt were two kids having fun on a Friday night.

The girls just had watched a movie. They ran out to pick up a pack of gum at the WaWa down the street. Ali was driving. She stopped at a red light on Virginia Beach Boulevard. The girls sat there, waiting for the light to turn green.

Tessa Tranchant's friend,Allison Kunhardt

Alfredo Ramos also was on Virginia Beach Boulevard that night. Police said Ramos, who was in the country illegally, was drunk behind the wheel. He smashed his car into the back of Ali's car. She and Allison died.

I got a call from a police officer that said, 'We need you to come to the hospital, he recalled. Your daughter's been involved in an accident.' I said 'Okay, I'll be there in five minutes.' I lived near there. Then, Tessa's mom called and was screaming and said, 'Tessa's dead!'

Two phone calls. Two lives lost. Many people changed forever.

It was that movie, like you're in a movie, 'cause everything is so surreal, Tranchant described. Someone met me there and escorted me back to where they were laying on a gurney with a blanket over them. I was in total disbelief that she is sitting there, dead.

Tranchant told told 13News Now, Alfredo Ramos was intensely inebriated He added, He had a .3-something alcohol-blood level.

Tranchant said he learned the true meaning of tragedy when Ramos went on trial for the deaths of Tessa and Ali, deaths he believes were preventable.

Court records showed Alfredo Ramos was convicted of public drunkenness in Virginia Beach and driving under the influence in Chesapeake in the months before the wreck, but that didnt prevent him from getting behind the wheel that night in 2007. It also didn't allow authorities to deport him to his home country of Mexico at the time. Tranchant said not once was Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contacted.

When asked if he thinks the girls would be alive if contact with ICE had been made, and if more had been done to keep Ramos from driving, Tranchant responded, I believe they would. He noted, I'm not God, and I don't know what happens in the big scheme of things, but at that moment, I know they'd be alive.

Tranchant has been working with the Trump administration on immigration reform. He's become an activist, even testifying before Congress.

I'm not against immigration, he stated. I'm just for legal immigration and that's what I stand for.

Every day he sees stories on the news of families ripped apart when ICE deports someone. Every day his memory goes back to the little girl he never got to see grow up.

He can stay in touch with his kids, Tranchant said. It may not be comfortable, but he can stay in touch with them. He can Facebook them. He can talk to them. He can talk to them on the phone. We can't. Our families are dead, so we don't have sympathy for that.

Ramos pleaded guilty to the crimes and has served 10 years of a 24-year sentence at the Greensville Correctional Center.

We requested an interview with him, and he agreed to one.

13News Now Laura Geller sat down with Alfredo Ramos, the man who took the lives of two young girls while driving drunk.

Alfredo Ramos entered the United States illegally, hoping to pursue the American Dream.

Instead, he ended the dreams and the lives of 16-year-old Tessa Tranchant and 17-year-old Allison Kunhardt in 2007.

Ten years after Ramos got drunk and crashed into the car in which the girls were, Ramos talked about that night, how he came to be in the country, and what he wants the families of Tessa and Ali to know.

13News Now requested an interview with the Greensville Correctional Center inmate, and he agreed to it.

Alfredo Ramos (Photo: Department of Corrections)

13News Nows Lucy Bustamante served as translator for the telephone conversation with Ramos who originally is from Mexico.

First, he wants to start off with saying that it's a blessing that your call came to him because it's been in his heart to be able to get the message to the parents of how sorry he is, Bustamante said.

Ramos took us back to the night of March 30, 2007.

He says that he was by himself most of the day and around nine o'clock at night he decided to call it quits at the local bar he was at, Bustamante relayed.

Ramos got behind the wheel of his car and smashed into the car in which Tessa and Ali were. The girls were stopped at a red light on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Virginia Beach. Tessa and Ali died in the crash.

We asked Ramos if he knew he was too drunk to drive at that point.

At that time, he was aware that he was that drunk, but he was much younger, and he felt invincible, Bustamante translated.

Ramos wanted Tessa's and Ali's families to know it was never his intention to hurt anyone.

He says that the vice that he was involved with was alcohol, Bustamante said. He had that vice because of the hardship of coming to this country and leaving everything behind.

Ramos gave us the details of what he did to get to the United States including all the illegal things. With more than 10 years left to serve on his sentence after which time hell be deported back to Mexico there is no reason to hold back.

Like many who come here illegally, he crossed the border hoping for a better life.

He didn't have anything in his country, and he came for what he thought was the American Dream, Bustamante said.

Ramos told us he walked four days through the desert from Sonora, Mexico to Mesa, Arizona.

Ramos, like others who are here illegally, found that pursuing the American Dream, doesn't come easily. There is an irony to the situation.

When they come to this country, in order for them to work, they need identification and because they're illegal they have a hard time getting any sort of document to support their ability to work, which was their goal in coming here to begin with, Bustamante stated.

Ramos found out about a group of people in North Carolina who had the equipment to make identification documents. He drove there and paid cash to get the paperwork.

They knew they were getting a fake ID, but it was good enough to be able to provide them what they needed to start working, said Bustamante.

We asked Ramos if, after all thats happened, he wishes he had entered the U.S. legally.

He says if he would have had the means to do it, he would have done it legally, but that there is an entire population that cannot afford to go through the legal door, Bustamante explained.

To those who come to the United States to chase the dream he once pursued: The message to younger people that may have the privilege of being here is don't blow it like he did, said Bustamante.

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After His Daughter's Death: Father advocates immigration reform ... - 13newsnow.com

Hispanic business leaders gathered Wednesday in West Palm Beach to champion the economic contributions of foreign-born workers, picking up the beleaguered banner of immigration reform four months after President Donald Trump stormed the White House in a campaign launched with a blistering attack on rapists and criminals from Mexico.

We stand here a stones throw from the southern White House, said West Palm Beach attorney Lazaro Mur, referring to Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort. What we want is a message of rational immmigration reform that makes economic sense, not irrational mass deportations that make so sense at all.

In the primaries a year ago, Trump took a populist route straight past the GOPs corporate and establishment wing, which largely supported a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants. A flurry of arrests and deportations early in his administration clearly sent a message, though executive orders have been tied up in court challenges and Congress has been slow to pony up money for a border wall.

Mainstream (FAKE) media refuses to state our long list of achievements, including 28 legislative signings, strong borders & great optimism! Trump tweeted April 29.

About one in five of Floridas 20 million residents was born abroad, according to research cited Wednesday. They paid $23.4 billion in taxes and wielded $73 billion in spending power in 2014.

The briefing was organized by New American Economy, a coalition of business leaders and mayors launched by Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch to influence public opinion and policymakers toward comprehensive immigration reform.

The event was part of the national Map the Impact campaign, featuring data on Americas foreign-born population in all 50 states and 435 congressional districts.

For example, immigrants represent 185,000 people, or 25 percent of a congressional district that stretches from Wellington to Pompano Beach and is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach. They paid $1.2 billion in taxes and carried $4.1 billion in spending power.

One of those foreign-born immigrants is Dina Rubio, co-owner of Don Ramon Cuban Restaurant on South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, which hosted Wednesdays proceedings. She came from Nicaragua in 1981 to escape problems in that country, figuring she would return in a year or so, she said.

This became my country, Rubio said. I became part of this culture. This is my place now.

Julio Fuentes, president and CEO of the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said goals include a streamlined process employers can use to vet workers and a positive dialogue for immigration reform.

Trump made immigration an unmistakeable centerpiece on his campaign from the moment of his announcement speech in June 2015, openly calling out Mexicans who entered the country illegally.

When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best, Trump said. Theyre not sending you. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Trump continued, Its coming from more than Mexico. Its coming from all over South and Latin America, and its coming probably probably from the Middle East. But we dont know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we dont know whats happening. And its got to stop and its got to stop fast.

Many were outraged at what they considered a racist slap, and several corporations cut ties with Trump. But it resonated in the GOP primary polls with rank-and-file voters tired of what they viewed as politically-correct failures to address serious social and safety problems. Fort Lauderdale-based Republican blogger and author Javier Manjarres said at the time, What he said was very crude. As a Hispanic, I didnt get offended because I knew exactly what he was saying.

At a swearing-in ceremony for new citizens in West Palm Beach in January, opinions were not uniform about Trumps immigration stance.

I feel its great, said Daniel Cohen, 56, of Boca Raton. Terrorism is a big problem in his original home: Im an Israeli Jew.

Carino Severino, 24, a teacher from Fellsmere in Indian River County who came from Mexico at age 4: Im happy. I feel like Im an American now. At the same time, she said, Im scared. I dont want my family and friends to be sent back to Mexico.

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Hispanic leaders pitch reform vs. 'irrational' Trump immigration plan - Palm Beach Post