Stop 'open season' on Elgin Latinos

The extent of the immigrant bashing in Elgin is disturbing and, frankly, bizarre. I think that recent events have proven that the Association for Legal Americans, a spiritual sister group of the minutemen Midwest Alliance, an undocumented immigrant hate-group, should not be fueling policy in this heavily Latino city, which recently saw its only Latino councilman, Juan Figueroa, disposed of.

In a Sept. 21 Daily Herald article "Elgin to audit more for illegal city workers" we read that the Association for Legal Americans claimed it had "reliable information" last year that "undocumented workers were (working) at the golf course." But then we find out that based on AFLA's reliable information, Elgin conducted its "first full-blown audit of a city-hired temporary agency ... (and) did not turn up any undocumented workers,"

AFLA says even though its information was wrong, there should be more audits, a witch hunt of an even greater scale should be launched. Elgin has already considered, in addition to a host of other anti-immigrant disguised programs that target Latinos, the infamous "Polimigra" program in which police have the power of federal immigration agents. This program has been widely denounced by Latino, civil rights, faith-based, immigrant and refugee-rights groups.

I wonder what mystical hold the AFLA has over elected officials in Elgin, a city of close to 110,000 people, close to half of whom are Latino. What information did AFLA present to city officials in their complaints to spur this audit?

Now that the information has been discredited, will the elected officials stop listening to the AFLAckers? People from Elgin attend the meetings of Immigrant Solidarity DuPage, the county's largest Latino civil rights group, and tell us of the "open season" on Latinos in that city. Such blatantly racist-driven policy must come to an end.

Cristóbal Cavazos

Wheaton Director, Immigrant Solidarity DuPage