Families and members of the community carrying signs that read “We Are One/ Somos Uno” and “Being Human Is Not A Crime” demonstrated in the blowing snow at a rally for immigrant rights Saturday at the UNITE building in North Knoxville.

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition sponsored the event to oppose legislation passed in the United States House of Representatives that would criminalize aiding undocumented immigrants in any fashion.

Lisa Barba, East Tennessee organizer for TIRRC, encouraged those in attendance to contact their legislators and demand they vote against the bill.

“We need to say, ‘No.’ We need to call our legislators, we need to call our senators and make them say, ‘No.’”

Barba said that many of the immigrants who reside in the United States have done so for years, having raised families and earned a living for their children and families in their home countries.

“This is their land. They don’t have documents, but this is their land,” she said.

House Resolution 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., is designed to protect American borders from terrorist infiltration. To do so, it targets the undocumented alien population, citing the fact that 15 of the al Qaeda terrorists who hijacked commercial airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center towers, into the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania were in the United States illegally. The bill states that had the immigration laws been properly enforced, the terrorists would likely have been caught.

The text of the bill, passed on Dec. 16, 2005, by a vote of 239 to 182, states that any person who “assists, encourages, directs or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States, or to attempt to reside in or remain in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to reside in or remain in the United States” could face as many as five years in prison.

Barba said that the immigration system needs reform, but that this bill doesn’t provide it.

Barba, who attended the last session of the Knoxville city council, invited council members to attend the rally. Chris Woodhull, representative at large, and Bob Becker, representative for the fifth district, attended and spoke briefly before the rally ended.

“It’s amazing to me that my Republican brothers and sisters are aligning themselves with this,” Woodhull said. He likened the bill to the massacre of the innocents in the New Testament whereby Herod, king of Judea, ordered the killing of all children under two years old in the town of Bethlehem out of fear of Jesus Christ’s usurpation of his throne.

One of the speakers, Monica Hernandez, director of the board at TIRRC, said that she was pleased by the turnout and by council members Woodhull and Becker’s presence.

“I think it’s wonderful that Knoxville has some city council members willing to come to this,” she said.

In her speech, Hernandez said that the gathered groups at the rally wanted appropriate changes to immigration policies.

“We are not asking for amnesty, because we are not criminals,” she said. “What we do demand is a just change to immigration policies that … respects our dignities.”

One volunteer for TIRRC said she, a non-Hispanic woman, attended the rally to show her support for basic human rights in the United States

“I’m here because I support immigrant rights and the rights of all human beings for their right to live and work in this country,” Jane Crowe of Knoxville said during the outdoor demonstrations after the indoor rally.

“I think this was a wonderful event. I was pleased with the turnout, especially [considering] the weather.”

The TIRRC will hold another event this Saturday in Johnson City and later in Sevierville. The University of Tennessee will also hold a conference at the end of March to explore the increasing Hispanic immigrant population in Tennessee.

For more information about the TIRRC, visit its Web site at http://www.tnimmigrant.org.