Even though several bills regarding illegal immigration have stalled in the U.S. Senate recently, U. S. Rep. Steve Buyer wanted to get a feel for how Crawfordsville is affected by the immigrants to bring the information back to Washington.

Buyer, representing Indiana’s fourth congressional district, invited local elected officials and community leaders to an immigration forum Monday at the Holiday Inn. The forum was an opportunity for Buyer to hear what Crawfordsville leaders thought of illegal immigration in their community and the policies that govern it.

“It’s still important for me to come back to Indiana and talk to these two communities,” said Buyer, who had visited Frankfort earlier in the day.

“I don’t think Crawfordsville is in isolation,” he said. “I think Crawfordsville is representative of many communities in the area.”

Buyer said he was surprised to learn from Crawfordsville community leaders that the city’s Hispanic population is family-oriented, self-policing and not a big problem for law enforcement or the courts.

However, schools and health care still have challenges in dealing with an influx of illegal Hispanic immigrants, he said. That’s why Buyer wants to be able to better document the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, even though many of them avoid the census.

“We have to know who is here,” he said. “We have to be able to figure out how to give them proper status.”

Buyer invited community leaders from the Crawfordsville Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, the City Council, Chamber of Commerce and St. Clare Medical Center, among others, to weigh in on the effect of illegal immigrants on their sector of the community during the roundtable discussion, said Sunshine Beam of the Division of Family Resources. Beam and Paola Menjivar represented the organization at the forum.

Buyer said, “These are the leaders that have to make the decisions about how to deal with this population.”

Beam said one of the biggest issues brought up in the discussion was the language barrier between the Latino community and the rest of Crawfordsville. Oftentimes, police officers pull over Latinos for traffic violations and are unable to communicate with them, she said.

Dave Long, executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, said, “The language barrier is probably the biggest problem we have to overcome.”

Another important issue is getting valid identification, which affects nearly everything else, Long said. Other issues brought up were law enforcement, social services and illegal immigrants having children, who are then legal U.S. citizens, Long said. Buyer wanted to get the response of Crawfordsville leaders to these issues to keep the issues alive in Congress, Long said.

“He was trying to get a grassroots feel for what smaller cities are dealing with,” he said.

The illegal Hispanic community is attracted to Crawfordsville because of jobs and the small-town atmosphere where they can generally blend in, Long said. They are often hard workers and bring in family members who are hard workers as well, he said.

“Communty-wise there are a lot of areas that need to be worked on, but they are a big part of our community,” Long said.

The 109th Congress has seen several bills relating to the immigration issue recently. The Real ID Act of 2005 modified eligibility criteria for asylum and withholding of removal, limited judicial review of certain immigration decisions, gave additional waiver authority over laws that might impede expeditious construction of barriers and roads along land borders and expanded the scope of terror-related activities, according to information handed out by Buyer. The Secure Fence Act provided for nearly 700 miles of reinforced fencing along southwest border and a virtual fence of cameras, ground sensory and unmanned aerial vehicles. It also gave Customs and Border Protection the authority to disable fleeing vehicles.

Other legislation has passed the House of Representatives but is stalled in the Senate. The Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, Border Tunnel Prevention Act, Community Protection Act and Immigration Law Enforcement Act would put greater restrictions on illegal immigrants.

asandley@jrpress.com