Clyburn

Feb 21, 2010 — El Paso Times

Darren Meritz

Feb. 21, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- EL PASO -- Parallels between the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s by blacks and efforts to create a legal means for immigrants to gain residency in the United States are unmistakable, U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn said Saturday in El Paso.

"The legacies are different, but the goals are the same -- that is, full citizenship in this great country with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto," Clyburn said.

Comprehensive immigration reform remains important to the El Paso area and the Southwest, and the House is still prepared to pass new legislation that would provide a legal pathway to citizenship for immigrants, Clyburn told the El Paso Times.

Clyburn, D-South Carolina, spoke Saturday at the 27th annual Black El Paso Democrats awards banquet. About 300 people attended his talk at the Wyndham El Paso Airport Hotel.

Invited by Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, Clyburn is considered the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Reyes said that Clyburn has enjoyed a relationship with the Black El Paso Democrats. Clyburn came to El Paso after meeting with elected officials in New Mexico.

Similarities between the civil-rights movement of the 1960s and the drive for immigration reform today have not escaped the House, which intends to include in legislation similar provisions to protect the rights of immigrants, Clyburn said.

"We are including in this bill all of the

civil-rights and human-rights guarantees that we find in federal legislation," he said. "I think the parallels are there. Of course, when you add the backdrop of slavery to the element, it makes it different."

Clyburn added that the legacies of an immigrant class seeking legal residency in the United States differs from the class of black U.S. citizens seeking equal rights.

Clyburn, 69, was a product of the civil-right movement. He was arrested several times in South Carolina after organizing sit-in protests. In 1960, while in jail, he met the woman who became his wife -- she shared a hamburger with him.

On Saturday, he recounted to members of the Black El Paso Democrats and other local political dignitaries how his father, a minister, shaped his approach toward politics.

Initially believing he would follow his father's footsteps into the ministry, Clyburn changed his mind while attending South Carolina State College and was preparing for his father to be disappointed by the news.

Clyburn recounted his father's words at Saturday's banquet.

" 'Well, son,' he said. 'I suspect the world would rather see a sermon than hear one,' " Clyburn said.

Clyburn has since tried to heed his father's advice.

"I've always tried to ensure that my father's words, whatever it was I did, I wanted the world to see a sermon in it," he said. "So when I went to Congress, I picked up that mantle."

Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0478-42234675