“We will continue to dream,” said one of the speakers at the rally in Roosevelt Square in Gainesville Saturday, May 21, after he talked about coming to the U.S. It was the “Love Thy Neighbor” rally, and speakers opposed House Bill 87, which was signed into law by Gov. Deal and follows Arizona’s lead with an aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration. I attended the rally trying to learn all sides of the immigration issue in Georgia.
Another speaker talked about students at Gainesville State College who overcome obstacles to attend classes and give their all to make good grades. The immigrants who are here illegally can’t get a driver’s license, must ride with others, and must pay much higher tuition to attend classes.
About 100 people, brown, black, and white, were at the rally when I was there about 11 a.m. Probably more people would have been present if a sudden, unexpected antique car show had not blocked off all entrances to the Gainesville square, making it difficult to get to Roosevelt Square. A lot of wonderful old cars were there, but very few lookers. The show was not on any promotional calendar and appeared to have been thrown together at the last minute to block the rally. I know the immigration problem is complex, but Gainesvillians surely recognize the benefits of our Latino community. Our economy would be in deep trouble if they all disappeared.
Back in the late 1970s, Gainesville poultry processing plants could not find workers. They were sending buses to the South Carolina border each day to transport workers. About the same time I heard about a billboard on the U.S.-Mexico border that said “Need a job? Come to Gainesville, Ga.”
I noticed the first Latino people in town. There was no way of knowing who was legal. Old houses, long vacant in the West Side area, had new tenants. Some of the houses were being spruced up. The years have passed, local changes have continued, and not knowing who is legal remains the issue.
I live in an old neighborhood, and the houses on each side of me now are occupied by Mexican families. On one side, the family purchased the house, and they paint and cut grass so diligently that I worry about keeping up. In the rented house on the other side, two little sisters are in the second grade. They keep me informed about their lives, especially telling me about school. Each is so excited when she makes 100 on a test, and I’m excited for her. One came recently to show the prize she won in science.
President Ronald Reagan thought he had fixed our immigration system, which is broken where Mexico is concerned, but it only became worse. President George W. Bush wanted to fix it, but his ideas were rejected. Now President Obama has said law-breakers, individuals and their employers, must be held accountable and the broken system must be mended. As citizens, we have a duty to ask our members of Congress to stop playing the partisan game and find a way to make all residents legal while paying a penalty as well as a way to put families back together with fewer years of waiting and less red tape.
Head teller Serena Sheppard is on duty at Cameron National Bank that day in 1971 when a stranger driving a shiny new Cadillac requests to see the bank president, Paul Norris. The mystery man, Jarvis Salisbury, is working on a large-scale secret project and needs a loan. He returns to the bank several times and leaves with bags full of money. Several weeks later, when Serena arrives at the bank, the building teems with FBI agents. They’re investigating the loss of more than one million dollars from the bank’s coffers. They need to determine just who Jarvis Salisbury really is and who he’s working with. The bank employees and the townspeople are stunned. Someone in the small community of Cameron has helped steal money from the bank. Rumors fly and suspicion falls on all of the employees including the bank president, teller Joyce Williams, loan officer Phil Anderson, and even Serena. Will FBI agent Trey Bowman discover the swindler’s true identity?