Bizzell's comments spur immigration forum

The Johnston County sheriff's much-debated comments about Hispanic immigrants will be the focus of a forum today at the UNC law school in Chapel Hill.

The Hispanic/Latino Law Students Association organized the forum after Sheriff Steve Bizzell's remarks appeared in The News & Observer this month. Bizzell subsequently apologized for the comments, in which he condemned Hispanic immigrants for "breeding like rabbits" and called Mexicans "trashy."

The forum will take place at 5 p.m. in Room 4085 at the law school, 160 Ridge Road.

Vanesa Hernandez, a second-year law student and co-president of the association, said she read Bizzell's remarks "in utter amazement."

The day they appeared in print, she said, her e-mail box was filled with messages from friends and "everybody was talking about this" at the law school.

She and other students decided "we need to have a public forum for the community to get together and be able to respond to this and organize and see how we can get to the root of what these statements are all about," she said.

Hernandez, who is from Florida and attended the University of Florida, said Bizzell was invited this morning to attend the event but had not responded.

According to an announcement on the law school's Web site, panelists will include Mark Dorosin, senior attorney at UNC School of Law's Center for Civil Rights; Irene Godinez, advocacy director at El Pueblo Inc.; Katherine Lewis Parker, legal director at the ACLU of North Carolina; and Carol Brooke, migrant worker attorney at the N.C. Justice Center.

Law Professor Deborah Weissman will moderate the discussion.

The group will discuss how immigration has changed the demographics in North Carolina and how the state has responded, the underlying issues behind the tension in Johnston County and where the state is headed in respect to these issues.