thedrifter
03-08-06, 06:24 AM
Marine urges DeWine to reject immigration crackdown
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Elizabeth Auster
Plain Dealer Bureau
Washington - Marcial Rodriguez still has a hard time talking about the day last June when he barely escaped death in Iraq.
Rodriguez had just stepped out of a Humvee to look for Iraqi insurgents when the vehicle, with five Marines in it, was hit by a roadside bomb. Three of the dead were friends of his.
"I have no idea how to describe it," says the 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from Painesville. "It puts me in a bad mood when I think about it."
Rodriguez, a native of Mexico, was willing nonetheless Tuesday to talk about his wartime experience in the service of a larger goal: urging Ohio lawmakers on Capitol Hill to think twice before supporting new immigration legislation that he believes would hurt other Hispanic immigrants with backgrounds similar to his.
Along with several other Hispanic residents from Northeast Ohio, Rodriguez met briefly Tuesday with Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, who serves on a committee that has begun trying to draft immigration legislation in the Senate.
The group also met with an aide to Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Concord Township.
Rodriguez, who moved to Ohio from Mexico when he was 13 and became a U.S. citizen in 2002, says he wants lawmakers to understand that plenty of members of the military have relatives living in the United States illegally.
The idea that Congress might pass legislation that cracks down harder on people whose relatives are sacrificing so much strikes him as unfair, he says.
While his own immediate family is now living here legally, he says, his father came here illegally decades ago, and he still has uncles living here illegally.
His own gratitude for the opportunity to live in the United States, Rodriguez says, was central to his decision to join the military.
It was a decision he made over the objections of relatives who feared for his safety.
"I told them it is something I had to do," he says.
"I just wanted to pay back the country."
Growing up in a small hamlet in Mexico where education ended at sixth grade, and seeing his father only a few weeks a year, Rodriguez says he never could have imagined how much better his life would be once his father brought the family to Ohio in 1998.
"I never dreamed of going to college or having a big, happy family and a car," he says.
Rodriguez, who is majoring in international studies at Baldwin-Wallace College, says he hopes to become an officer in the Marines and later work for the CIA.
His trip to Washington this week was his first, he said, and he was pleased with the response he got from DeWine.
DeWine has not formally stated a position on various immigration proposals pending in the Senate, but he has said he wants to see a comprehensive reform of immigration laws that includes tougher border security, a guest worker program, and some form of registration for illegal immigrants.
He has said he opposes amnesty for undocumented workers.
Republicans have been split on the issue, with President Bush favoring a guest worker program and many conservatives strongly opposed to such a program.
The House has passed legislation that would toughen enforcement of immigration laws without providing a guest worker program.
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates Ohio has about 150,000 illegal immigrants.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
eauster@plaind.com, 216-999-4212
Ellie
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Elizabeth Auster
Plain Dealer Bureau
Washington - Marcial Rodriguez still has a hard time talking about the day last June when he barely escaped death in Iraq.
Rodriguez had just stepped out of a Humvee to look for Iraqi insurgents when the vehicle, with five Marines in it, was hit by a roadside bomb. Three of the dead were friends of his.
"I have no idea how to describe it," says the 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from Painesville. "It puts me in a bad mood when I think about it."
Rodriguez, a native of Mexico, was willing nonetheless Tuesday to talk about his wartime experience in the service of a larger goal: urging Ohio lawmakers on Capitol Hill to think twice before supporting new immigration legislation that he believes would hurt other Hispanic immigrants with backgrounds similar to his.
Along with several other Hispanic residents from Northeast Ohio, Rodriguez met briefly Tuesday with Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, who serves on a committee that has begun trying to draft immigration legislation in the Senate.
The group also met with an aide to Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Concord Township.
Rodriguez, who moved to Ohio from Mexico when he was 13 and became a U.S. citizen in 2002, says he wants lawmakers to understand that plenty of members of the military have relatives living in the United States illegally.
The idea that Congress might pass legislation that cracks down harder on people whose relatives are sacrificing so much strikes him as unfair, he says.
While his own immediate family is now living here legally, he says, his father came here illegally decades ago, and he still has uncles living here illegally.
His own gratitude for the opportunity to live in the United States, Rodriguez says, was central to his decision to join the military.
It was a decision he made over the objections of relatives who feared for his safety.
"I told them it is something I had to do," he says.
"I just wanted to pay back the country."
Growing up in a small hamlet in Mexico where education ended at sixth grade, and seeing his father only a few weeks a year, Rodriguez says he never could have imagined how much better his life would be once his father brought the family to Ohio in 1998.
"I never dreamed of going to college or having a big, happy family and a car," he says.
Rodriguez, who is majoring in international studies at Baldwin-Wallace College, says he hopes to become an officer in the Marines and later work for the CIA.
His trip to Washington this week was his first, he said, and he was pleased with the response he got from DeWine.
DeWine has not formally stated a position on various immigration proposals pending in the Senate, but he has said he wants to see a comprehensive reform of immigration laws that includes tougher border security, a guest worker program, and some form of registration for illegal immigrants.
He has said he opposes amnesty for undocumented workers.
Republicans have been split on the issue, with President Bush favoring a guest worker program and many conservatives strongly opposed to such a program.
The House has passed legislation that would toughen enforcement of immigration laws without providing a guest worker program.
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates Ohio has about 150,000 illegal immigrants.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
eauster@plaind.com, 216-999-4212
Ellie