President Worth opened the meeting with the introduction of David Hodgkins, our District Lt. Governor. He was there to officially present a special international award to our Club for the work we have done with our literacy program in Peru. This was followed by John Stedman who introduced six guests and four visiting Rotarians.
     Leland Parks provided the Health and Happiness Report. He mentioned a quote from Bill Wood; "A clear conscious is someone with a poor memory." It was then reported that Pete Sloan was recovering from back surgery.
     After the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, Bill Underwood offered an invocation. The song "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" followed. Members seated at the head table were introduced as follows: Tigger Alexander, Marilyn Bowler, Bill Underwood, and Mary Rinehart.
     Eckart Goette introduced our speaker, Richard Gottlieb who is Director of Immigration/Naturalization Services for North Carolina. He spoke on the subject of "Immigration Growth in North Carolina and its impact on business."
     Richard joined the INS in 1976. From 1990-1992 he served as Acting Assistant Commissioner for inspections at INS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. From 1992-1998 he was the U.S. Immigration Attache posted at the American Embassy in London, England. Since the end of January 1999, he has been the INS Officer in Charge of the Charlotte INS office. The Charlotte office has jurisdiction over all immigration issues in the state of North Carolina.
     "There is reason for concern at Charlotte-Douglas Airport over the recent substantial increase in international traffic. This year we will process up to 400,000 passengers. Arriving international passengers have increased by 51% since 1996, and will increase another 45% this year. Flights from Charlotte include four transatlantic and seven from the Caribbean and Mexico."
     "A new facility is in the works with immediate capacity of 800 passengers per hour with expansion space to 1200 per hour. Our immediate problem is we do not yet have the staff to accommodate this expanded facility."
     "We are now dealing with increased illegal activity. Just this week we intercepted six Albanians with fraudulent documents coming from Cancun."
     "Today's immigrants come mainly from Latin America (51%) and Asia (27%). This is a huge change from 1970 when most came from Europe (62%) and Canada (9%)."
     "Although the United States has an enormous social and economic capacity to absorb newcomers, that capacity is not unlimited. The issue that is frequently raised — does America have to be more selective? Should there be a point system, such as in Canada, that gives preference to better-educated immigrants.
     This approach is politically unpalatable, and would discriminate against Hispanics. More than 25% of today's immigrants are from Mexico — they are also among the poorest and least skilled. On the whole, immigrants have lower earnings than native-born Americans do: 25% lower for men, 14% lower for women. The United States would probably increase the skill level of its immigrant population by adopting a point system that rewards certain socioeconomic traits in the admission formula, such as education, age, and a measure of English proficiency. The formula could also award points to workers who bring in specific skills for "urgently needed" occupations as well as to applicants who have a job prior to entry, and to persons who already have relatives living in the U.S. A point system will tend to choose people who originate in countries with high levels of human capital, because those are also the same people who will qualify in terms of educational attainment and occupation. But a skill-based system gives equal opportunity to all persons who have equal skills — regardless of race or national origin."
     The ethnic diversity of the greater Charlotte-Mecklenburg area creates an environment ripe for alien smuggling organizations.
     Smuggled aliens and document fraud does not just pertain to specific nationalities or occupations, and spans the high tech, computer oriented workplaces as well as the unskilled labor-intensive occupations.
     The potential harms or risk to the local community posed by illegal immigration and criminal aliens is increasing — organized gang activity, large-scale drug seizures, crimes against the person, and elevated rate of sex crimes against minors. The community is also at risk in the areas of social services, particularly local hospitals and local school systems stretched beyond their limits.
     Mr. Gottlieb then opened the floor for questions. He was asked to comment on the criminal element entering our borders. Although all illegal aliens have committed the crime of entry, they do not pose a threat to the population, as do hardened criminals. The INS will do everything in their power to identify true criminals, and remove them. He said that 1-40 and 1-85 have proven to be busy corridors for the transport of aliens. At the same time, they are also excellent places to control criminal movement.
     The question was asked about special Visas for low skilled workers in the agriculture industry." In North Carolina, there are 10,000 workers who have entered the country through the "Growers Program."

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POWELL'S
OBSERVATIONS

POWELL  MAJORS

     Condolence is extended to Bill Morrison and wife on the death of their daughter Claire McHugh on April 18th at Santa Cruz, California.

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     Charlotte University City Rotary Club now meets at the Holiday Inn on University Executive Park Drive across from the University Hilton. They still meet on Tuesday at 7:30 a.m.

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