Identities Project host panel on immigration

As part of the Identities Project, on Oct. 23, Viterbo held a civil dialogue on immigration from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Nursing Center room 196. Series leaders expressed their regrets that they were unable to find a willing participant to present opposing views, but they did provide a panel of three people to explore immigration-related questions.

The panelists, Associate Professor Michael Wodzak, Assistant Professor Michelle Pinzl, and a local high schooler, Naomi, were asked questions after establishing why they were asked to speak for the dialogue. Wodzak, being an immigrant himself, was able to not only give background on American policies and attitudes, but also European.

Naomi, having just gained her citizenship after nearly 17 years in the U.S., gave responses based on what it is to be a young person in America who had to leave her home in order to have a better life.

Pinzl has a job as a translator and works closely with the Spanish-speaking population of La Crosse daily. Through her firsthand experience, she gave information on immigration policies and statistics.

For the next hour, the panelists expressed their beliefs on immigration. Their stories brought tears to eyes and encouraging comments from the audience. The feelings towards how administrations have handled immigration issues were critical and called into question how American society treats immigrants, legal or not.

One explanation behind the negativity is the way media affects the populace. To this, Wodzak replied, “Go listen to other outlets” so that you don’t get stuck in an “echo chamber.” Restricting one’s outlets deprives an individual of making their own, unbiased, ideas.

Next, the panelists expressed the importance of understanding how difficult it must be for families to have to leave their homelands and the reasons that they are fleeing. Naomi explained, “They’re people . . . they live and breathe like you and me” and that should be respected.

As the dialogue began to focus on the difficulties surrounding legal immigration, Pinzl compared American Social Security cards to European ID cards. In her opinion, the SSC are so basically made in order to make it easy to replicate. She says that it is “the backdoor in” for immigrants to be able to find work in the U.S.

To make up for the lack of an additional panelist, questions that the opposing views may have addressed were displayed the board and discussed by the audience and the three speakers.

At the end of the dialogue, Brian Pilsner reminded students of the importance of the Identities Project series and the conversations that come from it. He and the panelists agreed that Viterbo’s Franciscan values are transferable into worldly situations and that students act as spokespersons for good and acceptance both in the La Crosse community and wherever life takes them next.