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Immigration protest at Stony Brook

BY BART JONES | Newsday Staff Writer

April 5, 2006

The battle over immigration spread yesterday to Stony Brook University, where about 200 students, including some who walked out of classes, protested proposed federal legislation they described as an un-American, draconian crackdown on immigrants.

Chanting slogans and waving flags from Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and the United States, the students clambered atop an empty fountain in the middle of the campus in a 1960s-style demonstration and pledged to fight the legislation until it is killed.

"We are furious," said Samuel Darguin, 20, an immigrant from Haiti and a health sciences and political science major. "We think it is a smack in the face not only to immigrants but to Americans."

The target of the students' ire was proposed legislation co-sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford). Their House bill would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, criminalize some assistance activities and erect a 700-mile-long wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

King has said that the bill is an effort to get the nation's borders under control and enhance national security. Federal officials have said about 500,000 cross the border illegally each year. The Senate Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, is working on alternative legislation that could create a legal path to citizenship for the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants and set up a guest worker program for low-skilled migrants who come here temporarily.

Students drove to the peaceful protest from St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, SUNY Old Westbury and St. John's University in Queens. Maria Martinez, 27, of Central Islip, a bilingual elementary education major at Old Westbury, said she served in the U.S. Army for six years and was outraged by the proposed legislation.

"It's ridiculous. This country would not be able to function without immigrants."

One student at the demonstration said the country's immigration laws prevented her from seeing her grandparents in Brazil before they died. Lisle Ferreira, 20, said it took 14 years to get a green card that allowed her to go home legally.

"There are parents here that aren't even able to see their own children," she said.