Hispanic Leaders Call Latest Immigration Bill 'A Step Backward'
June 20, 2007
By Hildy Medina
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The bipartisan immigration bill being considered by the U.S. Senate would force thousands of immigrants to live in legal limbo for years and strip immigrants of their civil liberties, leaders of several Hispanic advocacy groups said Wednesday.
The proposed legislation would offer a path to citizenship for immigrants, expand a temporary-worker program, strengthen border security and limit family visas to immigrants with advanced skills, education and English fluency. But Hispanic rights advocates said in a telephone conference call Wednesday that the bill is too punitive and has no realistic timelines for creating a path to citizenship.
"As it stands right now, it's just an unacceptable piece of legislation. I don't know that there's any way to fix this thing," said Gabriela Lemus, executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement."
The news conference, which was hosted by the National Latino Congreso, comes nearly two weeks after the Senate failed to pass an immigration bill that has drawn both praise and criticism from Democrats and Republicans, as well as Hispanic leaders and immigrant advocacy groups. Senate leaders say they plan to revisit the proposed immigration legislation before July 4.
Some Hispanic leaders called the legislation a step backward because of provisions that would, for example, limit judicial review of legalization cases and make it extremely expensive to become a legal resident.
"Those (immigrants) who cannot show proof of continuous employment, who are unable to score high in the point system, will have to come up with $20,000," said Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "I cannot go and ask people to support this bill."
Some Hispanic rights advocates, such as Ms. Lemus, said the bill doesn't address a "broken immigration system," and instead is too heavily focused on beefing up border security.
"Of the $4.4 billion that is supposedly going into the bill, most of it is for security of the border," she said.
Hispanic leaders agreed that something needs to be done about the undocumented immigration population that is currently here, but something also needs to be done to correct a "broken system" that would stop creating more undocumented immigration into the U.S.
"The enforcement provisions, the stripping of due process and assigning 200,000 new border patrol agents to the border without a real plan is just a bad idea," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "This whole bill really focuses so much on fences, raids, restrictions on due process and civil liberties rather than trying to address the root causes of migration. I think it's important for us to walk away from this bill and ask Congress to come back and take a fresh start."
Not all Hispanic leaders agree the latest immigration legislation, proposed by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Jon Kyl, R- Ariz., should be scrapped. Some Hispanic advocacy and immigration groups support the proposed bill, and were visibly rattled when it appeared the legislation was dead earlier this month. Over the weekend, President Bush encouraged Hispanic backers of the legislation to speak up.
In response, some participants of Wednesday's news conference believe the Hispanic support comes from the belief that a bad bill is better than no bill.
"Most of the organizations, if not all of the organizations, agree that there are some very bad components to this bill," said Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, president of the Hispanic Federation and an opponent of the bill. "Other groups believe that when the bill moves out of the Senate and goes into the House, that in the House it can be repaired."
Ms. Rodriguez-Lopez said she doesn't believe the bill can be changed in the House.
"It has too many pieces that are majorly flawed," she said. "I want to see a path to legalization, I want to see a temporary guest-worker program. These are the broad categories that you need to address, but when you get to the fine print there are just too many things that will not work and are harmful and hurtful."
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