Princeton University immigration forum seeks perspectives from all sides of the debate
By: Nick Norlen
At this immigration forum, everyone is invited except the pundits.
An Immigration Reform Round Table, sponsored by the Princeton University Center for Migration and Development, the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the New Jersey League of Women Voters, will be held 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Monday at 300 Wallace Hall on the Princeton University campus.
Space is limited, and those who want to attend should indicate their intent to attend by e-mailing [email protected].
LALDEF Chairwoman Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, a senior lecturer in Princeton’s sociology department and a research associate at the university’s Office of Population Research, said the event is designed to garner perspectives from every angle of the debate.
"I really think that most of us prefer to interact with those with whom we agree," she said. "We have been trying very hard to get people here whose views are very different form ours."
But the intent is to find areas on which both parties can agree, she said.
"The idea is to educate and not to confront. Because the climate has been so divisive, so fraught with misinformation, so cacophonic, so noisy. So what you see is a complete standstill, a total morass. We would like that to change," she said. "Some of the more rational, reasonable ideas in the conservative and liberal terrains have been completely lost in the shuffle. The idea here is to recapture (compromises) that reasonable people can live with to get away from the ‘deport them all,’ or ‘open all borders.’ That’s kind of the way that the debate or quarrel has been framed."
To that end, a bevy of political figures, religious leaders, advocacy groups, academics, researchers and business organizations have been invited to attend.
They range from U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) to United Patriots of America representative Paul Streitz.
But the forum won’t be a place for reiterating opinions, Ms. Fernandez-Kelly said.
"This has taken a considerable amount of effort to ensure that everyone feels welcome or that we are not setting a trap for them," she said. "We’re really trying to get past the rhetoric and grandstanding."
For that reason, the meeting will be structured in a way that won’t allow lengthy speeches, and will only focus on five distinct topics: border security, the nation’s unauthorized population, employer sanctions and enforcement, the backlog in the legalization process, and family reunification versus the point system.
As for the desired outcome, Ms. Fernandez-Kelly described it as "compromise in the best sense of the word."
She added, "What we wanted is to create a model for procedure and interaction that will bring about some kind of progress in the immigration debate," she said. "We think that this will provide an opportunity to surface the ideas that both sides can accept."
The co-founder and treasurer of LALDEF, Maria Juega, agreed.
"We wanted to add our grain of sand to the process of educating opinion makers in the state both in the private sector and the general public," she said. "This is not just an immigrant problem. This is not just a problem that affects the Latino community. This is a problem that affects America."
But organizers aren’t naive about solving the problem.
"There is no way that we can come up with … anything that resembles something that would make everybody happy," Ms. Juega said.
However, Ms. Juega said she thinks both sides no longer want to live with the status quo.
"This is a situation we can’t continue to tolerate. We need to do something. Let’s sit down, let’s look at the facts, let’s come up with some agreement on whatever we can," she said. "Let’s start making progress."

