Politics & Government

PREVIEW: Immigration, Front and Center at Civility Roundtable Thursday

Powerful voices will come to Mountain View to discuss immigration reform and how it affects the city and region.

Join the live blog Thursday, Mar. 22 at 6:30 p.m.: http://patch.com/A-rLwR (link goes live at 6 p.m.). Follow on Twitter: #CivilityMV

If Social Security is the third-rail of politics, immigration reform might be the fourth.

Patch has written about the legal immigration processes when we highlighted the who would like to remain in the country after their work visas expire. That article received 63 comments and we had to close the thread because some of the opinions bordered on hate speech.

Find out what's happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We've written about the issues faced by undocumented immigrants who, after years in the country, sometimes trying to legalize their status, from their children or who face and turn to law enforcement for help. Some of the comments on these articles critiqued decisions of law enforcement.

There's also the case of that help maintain the homes of many in Silicon Valley.

Find out what's happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

And, we have the DREAM Act children, kids brought to the United States at a young age by their parents and who have lived without legal papers in the country. They, too, face deportation, as in the case of Mountain View High School graduate Jose Antonio Vargas, who realized his undocumented status , or in the , whose family's first lawyer incompetently handled their immigration petition. Again, people wondered why any exception should be made to these individuals when others want to migrate to the United States through legal processes.

This Thursday, Mar. 22 from 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at the there will be a free open forum, a Civility Roundtable, hosted by the Human Relations Commission about .

The speaker participants include:

  • Jeff Rosen, Santa Clara County’s District Attorney
  • Maria Marroquin, Executive Director of the Day Worker Center
  • Oscar Garcia, CEO of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce
  • Dan Barich, former candidate for Congressional District 15, and a  conservative
  • Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and founder of the organization, Define American

The Civility Roundtable is an interactive discussion, and not a lecture. The first one, held in October, centered .

Tomorrow Patch will live blog the event, which allows you to sit back at home and participate online. We'll write up what's happening, upload photos, put up polls, and engage you, the public, through the blog and on Twitter (use hashtag #CivilityMV). Join the conversation! 

The live blog will go live at 6:30 p.m.


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