Student Speakers Hash Out Immigration Reform

Four local students put their public speaking savvy to the test Monday night in the 74th annual California Lions Club Student Speaker Contest.

Tuesday's winner, Brea Olinda freshman Monica Sharda, competed with students from , Walnut High, and Chino Hills High and will now move on to the next level of the contest, where $4,500 in scholarship money is on the line.

On Tuesday, students that advanced from the first round of competition took the podium to speak on this year's topic, which asks whether enforcing United States borders is a state or federal responsibility.

Each speaker Tuesday made the case for federal control of United States borders, each with his or her own style and argument.

Diamond Bar High Senior said that granting state freedom to draft differing immigration laws would be ignoring the history that led the United States to civil war, singling out a recent immigration law passed in Arizona, SB 1070.

"The Arizona anti-immigration measure strikingly manifests how ignorant we are of our history," Shah said. "50 different policies will lead to discord and chaos among our states and such political tension will divide our supposedly indivisible United States."

Brian Yu, a junior at Walnut High, injected his speech with a personal touch of humor, while making the case that federal immigration reform is a matter of security for cities and towns all across the country.

"We need to have police officers out taking care of crime, not checking people's identity and papers," Yu said.

Yu argued that the protection of one border requires the protection of one policy and closed his statements with the motto, "E Pluribus Unum" — or, "out of many, one."

Chino Hills High junior Kalyn Rose Taylor said that a wall had been created between the federal and state government and revisited the image in discussing the wall built along the U.S. - Mexico border. Taylor invoked the image again in comparing what she said was the mistake of the border wall to the Berlin wall.

"The Berlin wall was one of the biggest international mistakes that we ever allowed to happen," Taylor said.

Taylor cited the words of Mexican President Felipe Calderón, calling the the wall along the Mexican border "deplorable," and she said U.S. policy should be uniform and aim to solve common problems to promote prosperity in both countries.

Contest winner Monica Sharda depicted two sides of immigration into America: one that brings innovation and progress and another that she said drains the U.S. economy and social services.

"Immigration, when done legally, is in the best interest of our country," Sharda said. "But it's fair to say that illegal immigration puts a drain on our economy."

Sharda, who said she is the grand-daugther of Indian immigrants, said the U.S. should continue to encourage immigrants like her grandfather who she said "came to the U.S. in search of a better life," but that existing federal law should be more strictly enforced to ensure immigration is done legally.

Sharda will take on the next level of region-wide competition on March 30 at the Diamond Bar Holiday Inn after a 7 p.m. Lions dinner reception.

The winner of the regional contest will receive $4,500 in scholarship funds from the Lions Student Speakers Foundation and advance to the area level where they stand to win another $6,500 in scholarship money.

Lions Former President Jack Tanaka said the Student Speakers Foundation will distribute a total of $103,000 statewide to winners of this year's various levels of speaker contest winners.