by Trish Nelson

The Fallon Forum was broadcast live tonight from Iowa City – Topic: Should Iowa City/Johnson County be a Sanctuary community for undocumented workers? Link

About twenty people were in the audience tonight at the First Mennonite Church in Iowa City for the live radio broadcast.  The program's format was a mix of guest experts and audience and caller participation.

Guests on the show included Blog for Iowa's own Paul Deaton, Sarah Swisher of SEIU, and Father Rudy Juarez of St. Patrick's Catholic church.

It was exciting to participate in a live progressive radio broadcast and the evening was calm and informative.  Immigration can be a hot button issue, but in true Fallon Forum form, civility was achieved. Lynn opened the show by saying, “I want to make sure folks know it's a serious issue, a lot of emotions that go with it… first, our show is about civil dialogue. This is not a show about illegal immigration. We believe the system needs to be reformed but people shouldn't be demeaned.”

Each of the guests got a segment of the show. In the second segment they went to callers, and they also took some questions from the audience.

Paul Deaton was the first guest and explained that the Sanctuary City Committee is a group of religious and labor leaders trying to address the immigration issue in Iowa City/Johnson County. “Our main hope is that at the end of the process we can pass some type of resolution or ordinance that says people will receive services regardless of immigration status.”

Sarah Swisher up next during the second segment said, “we want to offer [undocumented workers] fundamental safety and security that any person visiting our country should have…” She mentioned that organized labor has a long tradition of protecting immigrants.

Father Rudolph Juarez was there to represent the faith community. He said laws such as ones passed in Arizona and Fremont, Nebraska create a “moral slippery slope, essentially saying we don't want you here….Our economic structure can pass borders without any problem, but people can't…..people would try to be here legally if that opportunity was afforded; sometimes there is a 25 year waiting period to come into the US – but you never hear about that….”

Father Juarez said the faith aspect has to do with common ground, treating one another with respect and dignity, simply because they're human beings.

There was much more lively conversation, questions, caller and audience comments, back and forth debate, myths debunked and opinions expressed, and all in a civil fashion (although we couldn't actually hear the callers…).  If you would like to listen to the entire hour, it would be well worth your time, and the podcast can be found here

Great job, Fallon Forum, for taking on a tough issue.