In the Washington state city of Everett, MLK Day to focus on immigration issues

A holiday known for solidarity rallies and peaceful marches is a forum for debate this year as immigration issues become the focus, reports the Daily Herald in Everett, Washington about 30 miles north of Seattle.

This week's Martin Luther King Jr. Day events include a speech from a renowned Chicano labor activist, a movie and discussion of that movement, and a forum on immigrants' rights.

"It is my belief that if (King) were alive today he wouldn't make a distinction between documented and undocumented people in terms of how they are treated in their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness," said Wally Webster, interim chairman of the city of Lynnwood's Diversity Commission.

Webster's commission organized a panel discussion on immigrant rights, scheduled for tonight at Edmonds Community College.

The current immigration debate mirrors the issues of the 1960s, Webster said. The similarities were never more apparent than when thousands of immigrants around the country left their workplaces to march last year to protest proposed immigration laws, he said.

"There are people who feel disenfranchised and that they do not have rights, whether you're talking about refusal to allow you to sit at a lunch counter or whether it's exploitation of labor," he said.

Others worry that King's message is being twisted to fit another agenda. King shouldn't be posthumously attached to a cause that could encourage illegal immigration, said Shawna Forde, a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, a volunteer border patrol group. Members of Forde's group plan to attend the forum to make sure that information presented there is accurate.

"We have a lot of respect for Martin Luther King Jr., and we don't like how (the holiday) is being spun this way," she said.

For MORE of this article, go HERE.