Posts Tagged ‘Garden City’
Resources dire in western Kansas
Muna Ibrahim and her husband, Mamfoud Mohaned. listen to information being presented March 27 during a meeting of the Board of Ethnic Minority Leaders in Garden City at the Finnup Center. Brad Nading/Telegram
“The numbers just aren’t there” to justify federal immigration resources in western Kansas, our elected congressmen and their staffers say — but that assertion is “just flat wrong.”
Those aren’t my words but the words of Garden City Commissioner Reynaldo Mesa.
And he’s absolutely right. Alien residents in this area and other documented immigrants and refugees probably number in the thousands, but federal officials just don’t believe it because there are no studies to back the claim, Mesa said Tuesday, when he spoke publicly about last week’s Washington D.C. trip. That sentiment, the former mayor said, continues to create an unnecessary burden for residents in this area because their access to federal services are limited and inhibited: To take care of many procedural matters, many residents have to drive all the way to Wichita and/or Kansas City, Mo., often times more than once.
That’s why for nearly the last half decade congressional delegates from the Southwest Kansas Coalition — member cities include Garden City, Liberal and Dodge City — have been pushing Sens. Roberts and Brownback and Rep. Moran to institute an office (or, at the very least, an officer) in this part of the state. Garden City Manager Matt Allen also said that the city would put forward the effort to locate office space if federal officials would just provide the people. And if they couldn’t provide the people, then the city would put forth the people, if federal officials would just provide the training! It’s obvious local officials recognize that the need here is dire, and it’s why the tri-cities coalition outlined the issue as one of their top legislative priorities for the years ahead.
As Mesa said Tuesday, the next time the Mexican consulate from Kansas City rolls into town, city officials need to invite those nay-saying senators and staffers to come see the situation for themselves. There are hundreds of people out here who are unduly inhibited from immigration processes because of proximity. Yes, it’s easy to sit in Washington D.C. and ignore the need that exists here because there are no studies to back the claims – but the stark reality of the situation qualifies justification for federal resources more so than any study could ever quantify it.
Subscribe to the comments for this postPrimary refugees in Garden City?
Mae La is the largest of seven refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Burma (the country renamed Myanmar by the military dictatorship). Many of Garden City's Burmese residents say they arrived in the U.S. after spending years in camps like this one. (Source: flickr.com)
I heard a surprising fact today: Refugees have been relocating to Garden City for a long time, but now many are coming directly here, to raise their families and hopefully find work at the Tyson plant in our backyard.
That from Velia Mendoza, the refugee coordinator at the Adult Learning Center at Garden City Community College. I spoke with her and several other staff at the refugee center located there, which the federal government designated earlier last year to track the movements and whereabouts of these families in this corner of the state, including in and around Dodge City and Liberal. (A little late on the ball, I would add, on the fed’s part.) Dubbed ‘primary refugees,’ many of these newest families of Somalian and Burmese descent are moving to Garden City directly after they are brought to the U.S., in part because they hope to find work at the local beef-packing plant and mostly because many already know some of the other hundreds of families that already live and work here, Mendoza said.
And that raises several additional challenges for both the community college staff and the other organizations that help these families, such as the local SRS, Catholic Social Services and private church groups, because unlike ’secondary refugees’ (many of the Somalian families in Garden City relocated here after the Emporia beef-packing plant shut down) they are completely new to American life and culture. On top of that, Tyson isn’t hiring as much as it used to, the staff added, and many heads of households are out of work currently. The center’s staff is having an awfully hard time helping them find work in the area — with the language, cultural and limited-education barriers for several breadwinners, finding work outside meatpacking is extremely difficult.
“So now what?” Hector Martinez, the director of the Adult Learning Center asked today. Good question. I don’t know. But there are several issues to be explored here about Garden City’s newest residents, and I plan to explore several of them over the next few months as the center continues to try to meet its ever-increasing demand for services. (The center offers ESL and driving classes, translation assistance, and more). Stay turned for many of these stories, and I welcome input below about what kinds of questions you have, as well.
Board formed to help organize, empower minority groups
via Board formed to help organize, empower minority groups | Garden City Telegram Online.
Board members of the Coalition of Ethnic Minority Leaders met Friday at the Garden City Administrative Center. The board includes Garden City Mayor Nancy Harness, left, and SRS representative Lee Ann Shrader. The recently formed group hopes the coalition will bridge communication between various ethnic communities and civic organizations. Shajia Ahmad/Telegram
Southwest Kansas Coalition
Hey, folks! So I was traveling abroad earlier this summer and then just got started with the local government beat at the beginning of this month … and so the Immigration Matters blog was definitely on the back burner. But now it’s back! (And better than ever!) I hope to post an entry or two about every week, so check back in a few days for a new post.
For now, I wanted to tell you guys why our local, elected officials deserve a mini round of applause: Last Thursday evening I was at a meeting involving city officials from the southwest Kansas tri-cities (Dodge City, Liberal, Garden City), and they’ve put together a legislative policy draft, outlining their goals for the region. The list includes things such as state highway projects, boosting local economic development, etc. etc. Anyway, I was relieved (thought little surprised!) to see immigration reform on their seven-page document, given our very visible populations and their importance to serving businesses and communities here: Tyson’s meat-packing plant, the numerous feedlots and farms where migrant workers are employed, and other farm and ag-related companies that rely on immigrant labor. Of course, city officials don’t all agree what can and should be done about undocumented workers but, as a group, they recognize there are serious concerns and problems with our current system and populations in southwest Kansas which are heavily under served. Here’s what the tri-city coalition had to say:
“Congress should consider providing under served rural areas with large immigrant populations assistance through the establishment of a dedicated outreach program or dedicated service center that would offer immigration services consistent with those provided by Federal Immigration Offices throughout the country. Such services would signify a sustained effort on the part of the federal government to remove time and distance barriers standing in the way of legal residents’ pursuit of citizenship.”
Yolanda Nacasio, left, Maria Ramirez, center and Guadalope Cendejas, right, giggle at the table as fellow student Maria Palacios walks to the whiteboard with son Leonard Hernandez, 1, in her arms on Oct. 22, 2009, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Parents with students at Jackson Elementary learn English from English Skills Learning Center volunteer Eileen Meiners at the school. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Leah Hogsten)