Hispanics protest immigration law

Ezequiel Gutierrez didn’t put out pastries Wednesday in his Russellville shop, Mexico Cakes & Bakery.

Juan Martinez kept the front door locked at his grocery store, Tortilleria Daisy.

Jaime Valdez did not oversee his commercial and residential properties.

And at least half a dozen chicken plants across the state were forced to shut down or scale back operations. The parking lot was virtually empty at a Wayne Farms poultry plant in DeKalb County that employs about 850 people.

Gutierrez, Martinez and Valdez are all legal immigrants in Alabama, but they stood in solidarity with other Hispanics across the state in protesting the new immigration law by keeping their businesses closed and their children out of school.

The protests were at least partially prompted by social media outlets such as Facebook, as well as a Spanish-language radio station in Birmingham.

Valdez said he would make efforts to use very little utilities, showering Tuesday night instead of Wednesday, for example, to further the idea that he had, in essence, left the state for the day.

He said Hispanics also tried to refrain from making purchases Wednesday to show how the economy would be affected without their tax dollars.

Valdez became a U.S. citizen in 1988, but he crossed the border from Guatemala into California illegally in 1980.

“I don’t forget — I was an undocumented, too,” he said. “I crossed the border undocumented, and I don’t forget what that was like.”

Russellville Mayor Troy Oliver said Franklin County might see some economic impact as a result of the protest.

“The Hispanic community has a large impact on the economy here and also on the school system,” he said. Because businesses were closing for just one day, however, he said the impact would be minimal.

Oliver said while he appreciates Hispanic residents’ exercising the right to peacefully protest, he does not encourage keeping children out of school, adding that he’d spoken with one boy who cried because he hadn’t been taken to class Wednesday.

“The white kids, too, are really worried about what’s going to happen to these Hispanic kids that they’re friends with,” Oliver said. “They’re truly concerned. So why bring (the protest) into the school system when the children are doing so well? Why get them focused on something that they really can’t do anything about and really shouldn’t know anything about until all of this is sorted out?”

Valdez said this was one time he could not honor Oliver’s wishes.

“He told me I should send my kids to school, and I said, ‘No, I’m disappointed now. I have to support the people who need it,’ ” Valdez said.

School officials in Franklin County said children of immigrant families who didn’t report to school Wednesday ultimately punished themselves, adding that unexcused absences lead to truancy issues.

The Russellville school system, with about 800 Hispanic students, had 170 students out Wednesday.

“We must follow board policy on attendance, and our hope is that they’re back in school (today),” Ramona Robinson, the system’s federal programs coordinator, said Wednesday.

At Tharptown School in Franklin County, where there is a significant population of Hispanic students — about 32 percent of the student body — there also were unusually high numbers of absentees.

Tharptown is one of the smallest schools in the county. There were 34 Hispanic students absent at the high school Wednesday and 39 of the 100 Hispanic elementary-age children.

“This is of great concern for us as a school system, but also as a state,” Tharptown Elementary guidance counselor Brandi Gholston said. “We could get into the emotional aspects of this all day long, but looking just at numbers, we stand to lose a lot of revenue. It hurts us financially when our average daily attendance takes a dive like this, but several days like (Wednesday) would really be devastating. The really sad thing is that these aren’t children who normally miss school at all.”

In Florence, Hispanic student absenteeism wasn’t higher than usual Wednesday, Superintendent Janet Womack said.

“Communication with these families has been the key on our parts,” she said. “I wasn’t alerted Wednesday to any unusually high absenteeism.”

An estimated 185,000 Hispanics live in Alabama. According to the latest census reports, the largest number of Hispanics reside in Franklin County. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 70 percent of the state’s Hispanic residents are Mexican.

Republican supporters say Alabama’s strict new immigration law was intended to force illegal workers out of jobs and help legal residents find work in a state suffering from high unemployment.

The law allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll.

Since a federal judge upheld much of the law two weeks ago, many frightened Hispanics have hidden in their homes or fled Alabama.

The Obama administration is among the critics of the new law and asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to at least temporarily block enforcement, arguing in court documents that the statute oversteps the state’s authority. It’s not clear when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will rule on the administration’s request for a preliminary injunction.

VW electronic research lab moved to Silicon Valley

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the ERL represents the entire Volkswagen Group in applied research and development with a mission to develop innovations and technologies for future generations of cars. They also find ways to transfer technologies from other industries into the automotive realm. The lab develops design and technical solutions to assist safe, convenient and intelligent interaction between the driver and vehicle information.

The ERL is a dedicated think tank for Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Volkswagen, focused on creating smarter cars and identifying new technologies. The Silicon Valley location allows the VW Group to work directly with the world's leading high-tech companies, start-ups and universities to develop applications for their vehicles.

The lab recently moved from Palo Alto to the current Belmont location, its third office in Silicon Valley, in order to support consistent growth since its 1998 founding. At the opening, the ERL hosted a Tech Day, involving demonstrations that provided a glimpse into the latest in automotive technology.

VW Group of America president and CEO Jonathan Browning was joined at the event by key officials including: U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, Belmont Mayor Coralin Feierbach; and Rob Csongor, Vice president of Corporate Marketing for NVidia.

Also in attendance were professors from several institutions including the University of California, Berkley; the University of Southern California; the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute; the University of California, San Diego; Stanford University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

"The Electronics Research Laboratory is another example of Volkswagen Group of America's investment in the U.S.," Browning said, adding that Volkswagen Group has made a significant multi-million dollar investment in the new facility. "The commitment of the ERL teams to automotive innovation will benefit drivers through safer, more eco-friendly driving experiences, prompted by the technological heartbeat of Silicon Valley. I am excited to help showcase the next generation of mobility today."

New Tech Demos
Human Machine Interface: recent efforts by the Human-Machine Interface team at the Electronics Research Lab have focused on designing innovative vehicle cockpits for Volkswagen Group's vehicles. Among the features are touchscreen/touchpad and display innovations creating a user experience allowing the driver to keep their eyes on the road as they interact with other features. Applications providing a wide array of communication, information and entertainment to rear-seat passengers are also part of the mix.

Infotainment Platforms: This team is developing systems that learn individual driving styles, preferences and schedules to provide personalized feedback about driving performance, desired points of interest and destinations, as well as recommendations for trip efficiency. This tool assist drivers in planning routes to avoid stressful driving, reserve parking spaces ahead of time and minimize dangerous driving situations.

Infotainment Applications: Building on the success of the Google Earth-based navigation system launched first in the new Audi A8 and the all-new Audi A7, the IA team adds Google Voice Local Search and Google Street View to the online navigation experience.

Driver Assistance Systems: The DAS team is collaborating with Silicon Valley-based visual computing technologies company NVidia to create next-generation vision processing applications for powerful emergency assistance systems. The team is also working with Oracle to develop Java-based tools for increasingly complex software architectures. The team has partnered with Virginia Tech and Stanford University to continue co-development of advanced driver assistance systems.

"These types of innovations clearly show that our researchers are among the best and brightest tackling the problems of mobility today," said ERL Executive Director Burkhard Huhnke. "Our partnerships with universities, organizations and companies like NVIDIA, Google and Oracle are helping us focus on smarter, safer driving and next-generation technologies."