Group aims to ‘motivate understanding' of immigration

New Bern Sun Journal
Barry Smith 

RALEIGH — A new North Carolina immigration organization has formed. While it focuses on a hot issue of the day, it differs from most other immigration groups in that it isn’t an advocacy organization.

“We’re trying to motivate understanding,” said Randy Jones, who is president of Uniting NC’s board of directors. “We’re not advocating any particular position. We’re not trying to solve anything.”

Uniting NC is still rather small. It’s trying to hire a part-time director.

Yet it has already undertaken a billboard advertising campaign, with signs going up in the Asheville, Charlotte, Rocky Mount, Smithfield and Washington, N.C., areas. It has also sponsored some public service announcements on radio stations in the Research Triangle area and has some video messages from immigrants posted on its Web site (unitingnc.org).

Last year, it conducted a community meeting at an Elon church attended by 50 to 60 people, Jones said. The meeting took place on the same Saturday as a forum on immigration and the “287(g)” law-enforcement program at nearby Elon University, Jones said.

“We’re talking about people, human beings and the kinds of stories they have,” Jones said. “You can talk about people as being documented and undocumented and not think about who they are and why they’re here.”

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