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Old 04-04-2011, 02:04 PM
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Default Voices of dissent intend to be heard at state secretary's visit

Voices of dissent intend to be heard at state secretary's visit
By Adam Strunk
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is coming to campus, but not without controversy.
Students, faculty and community members said they plan to protest Kobach’s speech titled “State and Local Laws Discouraging Illegal Immigration: Their Economic and Security Impact," which will be held at 7 p.m., April 12 at the Lied Center.
“It’s to provide the lacking point of view,” Yajaira Padilla, KU professor of Spanish, said. “While the speaker may present a particular point of view, there is no one there to offer the other side. I think you can’t make an open decision, you can’t educate people, with out having the other side.”
Kobach, who was elected Secretary of State earlier this year, has gained national attention as an anti-immigration advocate. Kobach helped write the controversial Arizona immigration law that allows police officers to detain individuals they suspect of being in the country illegally. The law also makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime. Kobach tried to implement a similar law in Kansas earlier this year but the Kansas Judiciary committee has tabled the bill indefinitely.
Kobach is coming to KU as a part of the Vickers Lecture Series put on by the KU School of Business.
“Whether you disagree or agree with this figure, he is very influential in politics today,” said Toni Dixon, KU School of Business communications director. “The University is a market place of ideas and it’s always good to have different perspectives.”
On Saturday, a group of about 25 students, faculty and community members were working hard to make sure their perspectives were heard. The group, which calls itself Lawrence Action Network for Diversity (L.A.N.D.) gathered at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries building to create strategies and signs for the Kobach protest. Hands — old, young, brown and white — painted phrases like “free state not police state” and “educate don’t discriminate” onto cardboard signs.
Many of the protesters hoped their efforts would help educate those going to the lecture.
“A lot of people are in the middle group,” Zach Bealer, junior from Great Bend, said. “They are coming to be more informed. The numbers are skewed to make things look much worse than they are. I want people to have the correct information and a different point of view.”
For others, the protest effort was much more personal.
“I am from Bolivia,” KU graduate Julao Castillo said. “I got a lot of friends who had to go back home because their parents couldn’t get a visa and couldn’t get a green card. It’s just sad when families have to leave the place that they call home. It’s just sad.”
Castillo attended KU on an academic scholarship that allowed him to obtain a student visa. He stressed, however, that many people wishing to come to America lack such options.
“It is really hard to get a United States visa,” he said. “Some say ‘well if they want to come to the U.S. why don’t they do it legally?’ It’s really hard.”
Castillo currently works in Olathe and is on the path to become a permanent U.S. citizen. He says the process will take him six to seven years to complete. He said that the difficulty to obtain a visa or to become a citizen were both reasons for the current amount of undocumented immigrants.
“When you’re here, the path to be legal here should be easy,” he said. “It shouldn’t be so many years. Some just don’t have the time or the money.”
While Kobach’s trip to the Lied Center has sparked protest efforts in Lawrence, it has also created some ethics issues in Topeka. On March 23, the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission ruled that Kobach could not receive the $10,000 honorarium the KU School of Business was planning on paying him. The ethics commission cited a Kansas statute that prohibits public officials from receiving gifts or payment for speaking engagements.
The speech will be free, and open to the public. Dixon expects a large turnout for the event.
The Hispanic American Leadership Organization (H.A.L.O.) also plans to participate in protesting Kobach’s speech.
http://www.kansan.com/news/2011/apr/...secretarys-vi/
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