Georgia Authorities Silence Immigrant Rights Advocate

Jerry Gonzalez, an engineer and the Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), was invited to speak on a professional panel on immigration in Rome, Georgia recently. The Society for Human Resource Management there invited him in July and the other panelists were: state Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, Floyd County Sheriff Chief Deputy Tom Caldwell and judicial interpreter Marcella Langlois.

Gonzalez readied for the panel but the day before the panel he received a cryptic phone call uninviting him from speaking because he belongs to “one of those groups.”  (Later one of the organizers said a four-person panel was not as feasible as a three-person panel, by way of explaining his rescinded invitation.) What that was supposed to imply was that GALEO — a group of professional Latinos in Georgia — was party to a lawsuit against the state of Georgia for its anti-immigrant law, HB87. That, however, is not the case. GALEO filed an amicus brief, Gonzalez said, but is not part of the suit.

After the panel he tried to speak to organizers and speakers, Gonzalez said he was physically blocked and shoved him, then the police followed suit. Then, as he wrote in a letter to the editor:

After the panel discussion was over, I went to question Georgia State Rep. Katie Dempsey (R-Rome) on some of the statements she made.  I wanted her to address the serious concerns this law has caused for local governments and our leading industry in Georgia, agriculture.  Unfortunately, one of her allies physically blocked and shoved me while Dempsey walked away refusing to answer questions. I had to speak loudly and clearly for the woman to quit touching me and shoving me so that the police officers in the room would notice what was going on against me.  As I attempted to follow Rep. Dempsey for answers to my questions, a police officer blocked me from following Dempsey.  At this point, I had to raise my voice in order for Dempsey to hear my questions.

This is in addition to the fact that the only pro-immigrant person on the panel was repeatedly interrupted in the middle of her sentences. Watch the video and judge for yourself. After watching the video, reading the newspaper story and Gonzalez’s letter, it appears that this panel was essentially a chance for anti-immigrant folk to speak to a friendly crowd, something that would have been threatened by Gonzalez’s participation. The video begins to pick up around 2:30.

“I was there to speak my opinion and people were questioning my patriotism and citizenship just because of that, it’s just ridiculous,” he told NewsTaco in reference to both the panel and the comments below the newspaper story. Indeed, a cursory review of these comments allude to Gonzalez’s allegiance to Mexico (he’s from Texas).