About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2020)
LOCA^NATION The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Friday, February 21,2020 5A Jaycees announce Young Man, Woman of the Year BY KELSEY PODO kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com The Gainesville Jaycees’ Young Man and Woman of the Year recipients have a talent for building connections and serving the community. A crowd applauded Thursday, Feb. 20, to congratulate Katie Dubnik as the Young Woman of the Year and Phil Bonelli as the Young Man of the Year. The award, which was pre sented at the Chattahoochee Country Club, has been given by the Gainesville Jaycees to young men in Hall County since 1946, and to women since 2001. Jenny Floyd, last year’s Young Woman of the Year, took a moment to reflect on Dubnik’s devotion to Hall County before bestowing the honor. Dubnik served as United Way of Hall County’s campaign chair and has raised over $1 million to help stop poverty in the commu nity. Floyd said Dubnik became the social services organization’s board chair in May 2019 and since then has given a minimum of 20 hours a week to her role. In addition to her work with United Way and running her own marketing agency, Dubnik has spent time on several boards, including Georgia Mountain Bonelli Dubnik Food Bank, Northeast Georgia History Center, WomenSource and Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. “Keeping connections is one of her strengths,” Floyd said. “She is also good at making connections or, as one person described her, she is a bridge builder. She loves to bridge people or even groups together to work towards a com mon goal.” John Simpson, last year’s Young Man of the Year, describes Bonelli as a man “with a servant heart.” “He thinks about people before himself,” Simpson said. Bonelli works as the senior vice president of Regions Commer cial Banking, where he provides strategic advice and financial ser vices to large businesses across Northeast Georgia. In 2017, Bonelli was selected as one of Georgia Trend Magazine’s 40 Under 40, which honors the state’s best and brightest in busi ness, government, politics, non profits, science, health care and education. He was also ranked in 2014 as Wells Fargo’s No. 1 business banker in the Southeast and received the 2015 Volunteer of the Year award for Junior Achieve ment of Northeast Georgia. When he’s not at his full-time job, Bonelli spends time as a board member of the chamber, Northeast Georgia Health Sys tem and Elachee Nature Science Center. “This guy just loves his commu nity and loves people,” Simpson said. “He’s the definition of ser vice. He is unbelievable.” New visa rules set off panic in immigrant communities STEVEN SENNE I Associated Press Baptist Pastor Clifford Maung, third from left, recites a prayer as Chin Sai, center, and Myint Myint Swe, right, prepare food following services at the Overseas Burmese Christian Fellowship in Boston on Sunday, Feb. 16. All three are immigrants from Myanmar, also known as Burma. Confusion, sorrow and outrage are rippling across some immigrant communities after the announcement of a Trump administration policy that is expected to all but shut down family-based immigration from four countries, including Myanmar. BY PHILIP MARCEL0 AND SOPHIA TAREEN Associated Press BOSTON — After nearly a dozen years moving through the U.S. visa system, Sai Kyaw’s brother and sis ter and their families were at the finish line: a final interview before they could leave Myanmar to join him in Massachusetts and work at his restaurant. Then a dramatic turn in U.S. immigration policy halted their plans. The interview was post poned, and it’s not clear when, or whether, it will be rescheduled. “It’s terrible,” Kyaw said. “There’s nothing we can really do except pray. They’ve been wait ing 12 years. If they have to wait another 12 years, they will.” His is just one of many stories of confusion, sorrow and outrage spreading across some immigrant communities after the announce ment of a Trump administration policy that is expected to all but shut down family-based immigra tion from Myanmar, also known as Burma, as well as Nigeria, Kyr gyzstan and Eritrea. The policy also restricts visas from Sudan and Tanzania. “There’s a panic wave going through the community,” said Grace Mobosi-Enwensi, president of the Minnesota Institute for Nige rian Development, a nonprofit group. In signing a proclamation last month that takes effect Friday, President Donald Trump said those countries failed to meet mini mum security standards. It was his latest crackdown on his signature issue of immigration. Calls about the restrictions have flooded legal advocacy groups and lawyers’ offices. A Boston- area Burmese church is trying to intervene to help congregants. The United African Organization has held legal clinics in Chicago to walk people through their options. The rules are certain to face legal challenges, but in the mean time, activists have organized around #MuslimBan and #Africa- Ban on social media and ramped up lobbying efforts to press Con gress to pass the No Ban Act, which would limit the president’s ability to restrict entry to the U.S. Roughly 10,000 people received immigration-based visas from Nigeria, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar in the 2018 fiscal year, according to federal data analyzed by the nonpartisan Migration Pol icy Institute. More than half were from Nigeria, the most populous African nation. The ripple of emotion has been felt strongest among America’s roughly 380,000 Nigerian immi grants and their children. They are one of the most educated immigrant groups. More than 60% percent of people with Nigerian ancestry who are at least 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, which is more than twice the general U.S. population rate of 29%, according to 2017 census data. Tope Aladele, who is seeking a visa for his wife in Nigeria, has faint hope that she will be able to come to the U.S. “I thought this year I could at least celebrate Christmas with her,” said Aladele, a U.S. citizen who works as a nursing assistant in the Chicago area. “I’m just hoping and praying.” Citizenship and Immigration Services officials declined to com ment on the concerns of affected families, deferring to the Depart ment of Homeland Security. Agency officials did not respond to emails seeking comment. Unlike previous travel bans, the new rules are narrower. They halt immigrant visas from Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgystan, covering people who want to live in the U.S. permanently and are sponsored by family members or employers. They also eliminate participation in a visa lottery pro gram in which a computer ran domly selects up to 55,000 people for visas from underrepresented countries. Sudan and Tanzania will also be barred from the lottery. The ban does not affect immi grants traveling to the U.S. for a temporary stay, including tour ists and students, or immigrants already in the U.S. There are exceptions, including dual citizen ship holders. In Chicago, the United African Organization hosted dozens of people at legal clinics. Many had questions about their spouses and children. One was Osemeh Otoboh, 46, a Nigerian citizen with a green card who has applied for two of his teenage children from a previous marriage to come to the U.S. Though their visas were recently approved, the suburban Chicago man married to a U.S. citizen was worried. His children live in Lagos, and he wants them to pursue an education in the United States. “I don’t even know how to explain it to them,” Otoboh said of the restrictions. Experts have questioned the administration’s national secu rity reasoning since there are no restrictions on tourist or student visas, which can take less time and vetting to get. Officials in at least one country, Nigeria, have said they are working to address secu rity concerns, such as information sharing. Activists said the restrictions amount to another travel ban like the one that was widely decried as targeting Muslims. The Supreme Court upheld that ban as lawful in 2018. It restricted travel from several Muslim-majority countries including Iran, Somalia and Syria. Sudan and Kyrgyzstan are also majority-Muslim countries. Nige ria, the world’s seventh-most pop ulous nation, has a large Muslim population too. “It’s a continuation of this administration’s racist and xeno phobic immigration framework that they use,” said Mustafa Jum- ale, a policy manager for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. HOUSING ■ Continued from 1A a proposed 140-unit senior living complex. The entire development would be on the northeast corner of the intersection. Council discussed the matter, with a vote on the sewer set for March 5. If the city doesn’t grant sewer, Capstone has said it would approach Hall County. The property where the apartments and retail lots face Spout Springs are now in unin corporated Hall. The property where the senior living complex would be is in Flowery Branch. The Hall County Board of Commission ers gave its OK to an apartment complex at the site in 2014. The site is zoned for 400 apartments. In 2019, Capstone sought to build a 520-unit apartment complex and the commercial lots, asking for annexation and rezoning by Flowery Branch. Senior housing wasn’t part of the plans then. But the council rejected the proposal, expressing concerns about traffic impact on already congested roads in the area. The development would also be near Interstate 985, and Spout Springs Road is being wid ened from two to four lanes. The apartments “would create a traf fic situation before we ever dealt with the (infrastructure),” Councilman Joe Anglin JEFF GILL I The Times Chris Riley, representing Capstone Acquisition, talks to Flowery Branch City Council Thursday, Feb. 20, about a sewer request for a proposed 304-unit apartment complex. said at the meeting. “This is about timing.” The newest plans drew a more positive reaction at Thursday’s council meeting, including talk about annexing the property as well as providing sewer so the city can bet ter control design standards. (The STtmcs ■iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin MEMORIAL PARK Funeral Homes & Cemeteries Memorial Park Funeral Homes has launched a Merchant Appreciation Program. Allow us to place a hand carved swan statue in your business and have your customers enter for a $50 gift card to your store or a restaurant gift card. Each week, Memorial Park will draw a business winner and notify you to draw a winner. 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