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August 15, 2006

Hearing raises awareness among area residents

Charles Oliver

A congressional hearing in Dalton Tuesday on illegal immigration may not have changed many minds, but several people said it provided useful information on the topic.

Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., who chaired the hearing at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center, said part of the purpose of the hearing was to highlight differences between rival immigration reform bills passed by the House and Senate.

Dalton businessman Phil Neff said the hearing didn’t change his mind about anything. He said he supported the House version of the immigration bill all along.

“But it did make me aware of the complexity of this issue,” he said.

Dalton resident Virgelia Meek said she also learned quite a bit at the hearing.

“It helps raise awareness at the grassroots level,” she said.

Deal and Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., described the House bill as an “enforcement first” approach that focuses on beefing up border security and law enforcement. The Senate bill, they said, also has law enforcement provisions but includes a guest worker program and would permit many of the estimated 11 million illegals in the United States to gain legal status.

Norwood described the Senate bill as one of the worst pieces of legislation he has seen.

Dalton City Council member Terry Christie said he was a little surprised at how strongly Deal and Norwood attacked the Senate immigration bill.

“I leaned over to (Mayor Ray Elrod) and asked, ‘Don’t the Republicans control the Senate, too?’” Christie said.

But on the whole, he said, he didn’t see many surprises in the hearing.

“I think they knew what they were going to hear, and I think they knew how the audience was going to react,” he said.

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