A new coalition of Eugene and Springfield groups says it wants to help create a welcoming and supportive environment for immigrants and promote a “thoughtful public dialogue about immigration.”

More than 30 groups have formed the Lane County Network for Immigrant Integration. On Monday, the coalition released an organizing statement of principles at a news conference at Springfield City Hall.

The principles, similar to those endorsed by community groups in other cities, aim to show appreciation for the economic, social, cultural and civic contributions made by immigrants in the Eugene-Springfield area, organizers said. Announced before about three dozen people, the principles also call for “humane and just” changes to national immigration law and seek to discourage discrimination against immigrant groups.

“Immigrants have been the backbone of this country since we formed this country,” said Bob Baldwin, president of the Lane Central Labor Council, a network member.

Network organizer Bob Bussel, director of the Labor Education and Research Center at the University of Oregon, said the network may eventually support specific national immigration proposals to make them more consistent and humane.

“We need comprehensive immigration reform,” Bussel said, adding that it was too early to say which specific proposals the network might support.

Nationally and in Oregon, so-called tuition equity legislation has been at the forefront of the immigration rights quest in recent years. Immigration rights advocates in Oregon favor allowing certain illegal immigrants — particularly those who were brought into this country as children by their parents — to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges.

Under current Oregon law, those illegal immigrants would have to pay the higher out-of-state tuition rates.

A bid to change the law failed in the Oregon Legislature last year, and advocates have said they are preparing for another push in the 2013 session.

The bigger picture in immigration policy is how, if at all, the United States should change the way it treats the many millions of immigrants who have come into and remain in the country illegally.

For Monday’s group, the first step is to set out principles for integration.

Melanie Oommen, associate minister at First Congregational United Church of Christ, said the principles “call us out of fear into the ways of love.”

“It’s on all of us to figure out what our next steps look like,” she said.

Other Eugene-Springfield area organizations belonging to the network include Catholic Community Services of Lane County, First Congregational United Church of Christ, American Civil Liberties Union, League of Women Voters of Lane County, Lane Transit District, Centro Latino Americano, Temple Beth Israel and several labor unions.

LTD board President Mike Eyster said the board unanimously endorsed the principles.

“It’s a modest and moderate statement,” he said.

All races, ages and nationalities ride LTD buses, Eyster said, from the gas-guzzler owners who want to reduce their carbon footprint to people who “depend on the bus for all their transportation needs.”

Bussel said the group chose Springfield for its announcement in part because the city has a rapily growing Latino community.

The U.S. Census estimated that 8 percent of Eugene-Springfield area residents in 2010 were Hispanic or Latino, up from 5 percent a decade earlier.

Anna Mercado, of the Latino Business Network, also spoke at the news conference. She said that’s a low estimate because many Latinos, including legal immigrants, do not respond to Census surveys.

But the number of Latino residents in Oregon is growing rapidly, she said.

Latino residents spend an estimated $3.1 billion in Oregon annually, she said.

“It’s very, very important to help Latino entrepreneurs because they are creating jobs” and providing a “cultural touch” to the rest of the community, she said.