Believe In America.com

butterbean · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2271

An immigration lawyer joked recently as he quizzed Riverside Catholics on the visas they used to enter the United States.

Was it a tourist visa? Some raised their hands. A student visa? A few more hands rose. "Was it Visa C? As in Coyote?" he laughed.

More than half of the 170 people who packed the parish hall at Our Queen of Angels Catholic Church to hear about the church's stance on immigration policy raised their hands.

Even though many at the meeting are not entitled to vote, 120 of them wrote letters to Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, on Monday night asking him to support changes in federal immigration laws, said Miriam Padilla, an organizer with Inland Congregations United for Change.

The letters, most of them in Spanish, jammed the fax machine in Calvert's Washington, D.C., office Tuesday. The effort was timed to coincide with a meeting of Calvert's staff and members of the Diocese of San Bernardino's Office of Social Concerns to explain the church's stance on immigration laws. It was expected to be the first of many such meetings.

As congressional leaders in both parties say the time is ripe to overhaul immigration laws, Calvert is among Inland Republican representatives who say they will not support a bill that grants automatic amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Both Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, who is part of the new House majority, and the Hispanic caucus he heads, support a rewrite.

Baca, the Inland area's lone Democratic congressman, wants increased immigration enforcement at borders and in workplaces as well as a plan to legalize many illegal immigrants, a three-part overhaul that supporters call comprehensive reform.

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http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_immigration19.1c61569.html