Republican offers citizenship workshop at NEIU

On Wednesday, Oct. 4, the office of Judy Baar Topinka, Illinois state treasure and Republican gubernatorial candidate, sponsored a free citizenship workshop in the Student Union Building.

With Chicago's large immigrant communities, it's more than appropriate to have a free citizenship workshop at NEIU, the most diverse campus in the Midwest, according to the most recent college rankings from U.S. News and World Report. This is both useful and convenient. It provided individualized assistance to all participants and reservations were highly recommended.

"Many people don't know where to begin, they have difficulty understanding English, they don't know who to call or they might just have trouble filling out the proper forms," explained Topinka in a press release about citizenship workshops. The workshop itself was free, but the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services required an application fee of $400.

Unfortunately, like so many other great events, performances, lectures and workshops at NEIU, one usually finds out about them after they have already happened. One of the things which can be greatly improved at Northeastern is accessibility to information.

Far too many of us find out about events at school through forwarded emails from other students. There is no single place on campus with a comprehensive listing of events and activities.

This is why, in part, it is so difficult to get a good turnout for events at school. And while we see plenty of MTV music videos run non-stop on monitors in the cafeteria, there is very little promotion for a workshop like this, which is crucial for so many of us who come from immigrant families. And yet, the timing of this citizenship workshop is not an accident.

Immigration is likely to remain a hot button issue. Both parties, Democrat and Republican, are eagerly courting the so-called Hispanic vote, even though Hispanics are only 11 percent of registered voters. Despite her efforts to distance herself from the policies of President Bush and his low approval ratings, the animosity the Republican Party has towards immigrants is obvious.

Last December, the House of Representatives passed an anti-immigration bill called HR 4437, which was sponsored by Republican James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin. It would make all undocumented workers felons, as well as those who help or work with them. This would include teachers, clergy, social workers and family members.

The bill sparked protests all across the country, including in Chicago. On May 1, more than a million protestors across the nation participated in "A Day Without Immigrants," a multi-city rally in support of undocumented workers. The militarization of the southwestern U.S. border and the criminalization of immigrants is an important and personal issue for so many of us.

For these reasons, its surprising NEIU would host an event sponsored by someone whose party is responsible for introducing anti-immigrant legislation in the first place. First, Republicans pass legislation that criminalizes some immigrants, and then later, it kindly offers free citizenship workshops conveniently timed during election season.

By hosting a citizenship workshop sponsored by the office of Judy Baar Topinka, this school is inadvertently endorsing her as an Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate. Topinka exclaimed, "That's where our office can help. It's a wonderful thing, helping people obtain their U.S. citizenship." Although this well-timed "help" is very much appreciated, it would be wise to take it with a grain of salt.