Latinos Stage huge Salt Lake City protest over License Issue
Wednesday, March 9, 2005 at 10:38AM
TheSpook
Norbis Marquez says she's often
mistaken for an undocumented immigrant, even though she's a legal
resident of Utah. She's used to it, but she says it hurts her children
more. "People look at us like we're terrorists," said Marquez, 39, of
Kearns. She fears a driver's license bill awaiting Gov. Jon Huntsman
Jr.'s signature could make things worse. Marquez was among hundreds of
people who gathered downtown Monday for a protest march that ended in a
candlelight vigil, hoping to persuade the governor not to sign SB227.
"We're going to have more separation among the people," Marquez said of
the bill that would replace illegal immigrants' drivers' licenses with
driving privilege cards that couldn't be used for identification.
Huntsman, who was out of town Monday, has said he supports the bill.
Few protesters believed they'd be able to persuade the governor
otherwise but said they wanted their voices to be heard. The bill was
released along with a state audit that suggested Utah is being used as
a portal for undocumented immigrants from other states to get drivers'
licenses, that more than 300 people believed to be undocumented had
registered to vote and that 14 of them had voted. The protesters in the
diverse group held their signs opposing SB227 so passing drivers could
read them as the group marched downtown, starting from and ending in a
candlelight vigil at the Salt Lake City-County Building, 400 S. State.
The protesters fear the bill could lead to racial profiling and
discrimination against Latinos in general. U. junior Jennifer Indo, 24,
said the legislation equates to a "red tag." "It marginalizes the
Latino community even more," she said. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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