Panelists sort out rural poll on immigration

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BY ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star

The task in front of a Wednesday panel in Lincoln was not an easy one.

A row of participants from higher education, government and immigration advocacy ranks was being asked to react to a 2006 Nebraska Rural Poll that seemed to carry contradictory messages.

Poll results released in November showed that 56 percent of almost 2,500 respondents from 84 counties disagree that immigration from Latin America has been good for rural Nebraska.

But 56 percent responding to a separate statement said undocumented workers who have been working in the state and paying taxes for at least five years should be allowed to apply for citizenship.

Lourdes Gouveia, a professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, looked at those and other poll responses and said she saw “plenty of support here for comprehensive immigration reform.”

Fellow panelist and state Sen. DiAnna Schmek of Lincoln called immigration “one of the most serious issues of our time. I think we have to address this issue,” she said.

The Wednesday forum at the Great Plains Art Museum was part of the Thomas C. Sorensen Public Policy Seminar Series and was co-sponsored by several organizations with university ties.

The Rural Poll that served as the forum centerpiece also marked the first time in the poll’s 11-year history that it had focused on public perceptions in rural Nebraska toward immigration.

In sifting through poll results, Miguel Carranza, a panelist and a professor of sociology at UNL, said they could be taken as a prod to leadership in Congress to assert itself on the immigration issue. “I would be the first to say we really need to look at undocumented immigration,” he said.

“It can’t just be a political football or we all lose.”

Coincidentally, Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel and two counterparts in the U.S. Senate introduced bipartisan legislation Wednesday that would permit undocumented students to become permanent residents. The proposal requires that they come to the United States as children and that they be long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character, and attend college or enlist in the military for at least two years.

A bit further along at Wednesday’s two-hour forum, Jose Soto, an affirmative action official at Southeast Community College in Lincoln, said participants in the immigration dialogue in Nebraska need to keep their emotions in check, despite emotional overtones.

Only moments later, as moderator Alan Tomkins shifted to written questions collected from the audience, emotions boiled over.

Two people from a total turnout of perhaps 200 loudly objected to a format in which they were not allowed to speak.

Dimitrij Krynsky, a leader of the Lincoln chapter of the Minutemen, and Susan Smith, a Minuteman member from Omaha and carrier of  a card that identified her as founder of a new organization called Nebraskans Advisory Group, were escorted out by a Lincoln police officer who had been lingering in the background.

“I’m sorry, that’s not what we’re doing,” Tomkins said of verbal questions and comments.

Smith was still fuming in the lobby. “See, he’s censoring the questions,” she said. “The complete panel up there is all pro illegal immigration.”

The mood among panelists appeared to be much more agreeable.

Schimek, successful sponsor last year of controversial legislation that allowed children of undocumented workers to pay in-state tuition at UNL and other public institutions, said she saw plenty of positives in the poll results.

That included, as she saw it, the 56 percent score from respondents on a path to citizenship for people who worked and paid taxes.

“That’s pretty strong, in my opinion,” she said.

Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.