U.S. State Senator Obama Holds Town Hall Meeting in Cicero
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Printable FormatMeeting targeted towards the Hispanic Community
By Ivette Sandoval
LAWNDALE BILINGUAL NEWS
U.S. State Senatro Barack Obama visited the town of Cicero this past Monday October 10th, during a town hall meeting at Morton College. The college auditorium was filled with members of the Hispanic community who anxiously awaited to speak to the senator. Many organizations like Latinos United held signs that asked the senator questions or asked him to support bills, like the HR3856 bill that focuses on immigration.
This is the 35th town hall meeting the senator hosts since he took office, but the first targeting the Hispanic community, making it the first bilingual town hall meeting. "The majority of Latinos can speak English, but language barriers sometimes prevent them from participating," said the senator. He explains that his office wants to reach out to everyone in the community, especially since Latinos are the fastest growing community in the country and in this city as well.
Three of the things that he has vouched to work on are, improving the education system, improving health care and improving the immigration system. According to his research 1 of 10 Latino first graders will attain a bachelors degree; Latinos also have a 40% drop out rate. As his first piece of legislation he helped expand the Pell Grant program that gives financial help to those that qualify, his staff is currently working on education programs that will help Latino students.
"There are over 45 million uninsured Americans, disproportionately these are Latinos and African-Americans - these are people who work hard everyday, but their employers don't give them benefits," he said. He helped expand Medicaid coverage for children of immigrants, even though the Federal government is not giving the state money to fund these programs. "At the very least, we want every child in America to be insured." He is working with the immigrant community and with Senators McCain and Kennedy to provide a comprehensive immigration reform. "It is my strong belief that we cannot sustain the type of immigration system that exists currently, in which people who have lived here and have children who are citizens and they cannot get citizenship," said Obama. "I'm confident that we will be able to pass this because we have no choice and the current system is not working."
The Senator was asked a variety of questions at the town hall meeting, ranging from immigration reform, to childcare, to insurance fraud. Marcelo Figueroa asked who controlled insurance companies. The senator explained that this is a problem that has occurred for many years and that it happened to him as a young man. "Most of the regulations on insurance take place at the state level, the Director of Insurance is supposed to regulate these services," he answered. For Latinos and African-Americans who can't afford better insurances like State Farm, they are impacted when they can't contact their insurance for the state of Illinois and ask what is being done on the issue.
Another woman asked about daycare, which is a great issue for working families. "Having high quality childcare is essential, because studies show that they will do better in school if they have this early on in their lives." Another issue that was probably the most apparent was family reunification among immigrant families. "I think family reunification is a great idea, you have my commitment that I will work together with you." A young 12-year-old boy spoke eloquently about the hardship of having an undocumented parent and being a young American citizen, but not being able to do anything. Another young girl shared with him a similar story, whose father is in Mexico. He asked for a copy of their letters and vouched to help them in any way he could.
The town hall meeting was a success in all, many questions and issues were addressed. A member of his staff will answer those questions he did not get to. One individual even said that she would like to see him run for President in the next 12 years, and the crowed cheered on that thought.