Immigration Activists Keep the Pressure On
By Elena Shore
New America Media
Apr 08, 2010
Some say this is the wrong time to talk about immigration reform.
Congress just passed a huge overhaul of the nation’s health care system;
Republicans and Democrats in Congress seem more divided than ever; the
country is still in a recession; and it’s an election year.
But with the decks seemingly stacked against them, immigration reform
advocates told members of the U.S. ethnic media Monday that they intend
to keep up the pressure on legislators to enact immigration reform in
2010.
Congress is now “very fraught with partisan divides and, in the
shambles of the health care debate, a lot of animosity,” Jeanne
Butterfield, legislative director of the Reform Immigration FOR America
campaign, acknowledged during a telebriefing organized by New America
Media.
Yet immigrant communities are “virtually under siege, with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions coming down on
people’s heads on a daily basis,” she said.
There is “huge momentum coming out of [March] 21st,” when 200,000
people marched in Washington, D.C., to demand immigration reform, said
Gabe Gonzalez of the Center for Community Change.
The rallies in Washington, D.C., and other cities showed that
“communities everywhere are ready to engage in a battle of epic
proportions,” according to Jorge-Mario Cabrera, communications director
of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) in
Los Angeles.
In order to remind Congress that immigration reform must be a
priority, Gonzalez said his organization is keeping in “constant
contact” with legislators; participating in rallies on April 10 in
Seattle, Chicago and Las Vegas; and issuing report cards to members of
Congress on May 1, the day when widespread demonstrations in support of
immigration reform are expected to take place across the country.
A recent op-ed in the Washington Post, written by Sens. Chuck Schumer
and Lindsey Graham, the two senators who are proposing immigration
reform, was another step forward, said advocates of immigration reform.
President Obama singled out that proposal as a starting point for reform
in his videotaped message to the rallies on March 21.
“We were happy to see them advance the ball another few yards,” said
Karen Narasaki, president of the Asian American Justice Center.
Some immigration activists have expressed concern that the op-ed was
too conservative and did not bode well for any ultimate bill.
Butterfield said that the op-ed was “heavy on enforcement language,” but
this, she said, was because “it was talking to an unconvinced public or
middle, swing voters perhaps, who need to understand that fixing the
broken system is in fact the best way to assure that we have a set of
laws that can be enforced.”
The Schumer-Graham blueprint also does not mention fixing the family
visa system, a key concern for many Asian communities. According to
Narasaki, however, this part of the proposal will be outlined after
looking at the issue of how to expand the number of work visas.
A report released last week by the Office of the Inspector General
found that the agencies participating in the 287(g) program -- which
authorizes local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws –
were “not operating in compliance with the terms of the agreements” and
that ICE “had not instituted controls to promote effective program
operations and address related risks.”
In other words, Butterfield said, the report found that the 287(g)
program “lacked accountability and oversight,” and gave a “scathing
indictment of 287(g).” What comes of the report remains to be seen. But
activists took that as further proof of the need for comprehensive
immigration reform.
But some are skeptical that immigration reform could be enacted
before the November elections.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., recently said the best time to enact
immigration reform would be “in November, right after the elections.”
“I think there are a bunch of people who are retiring who would cast
votes (because) their heart and their intellect tell them it is the
right thing, but their politics might have told them no,” Menedez told
the New Jersey Star-Ledger last week.
For now, the possibility of bipartisan reform looks slim. According
to Butterfield, there are only 10 to 12 Republicans who have either
voted for comprehensive immigration reform in the past or are considered
possible supporters this time around.
For a bill that depends on bipartisan support, this could be
problematic.
But it’s a “chicken and egg” scenario, cautioned Butterfield:
Senators will tend to support a bill that they think has the potential
to move; but in order to move, the bill needs to have enough support.
“The math has to add up to 60” in order to pass the bill in the
Senate, said Butterfield, “so however many Democrats we don’t get,
that’s how many Republicans we need.”
Meanwhile, on the ground, ICE actions are continuing under the Obama
administration in high numbers. Recently publicized ICE memos suggest
that the agency is setting new quotas for agents to increase
deportations.
“The perception in this Latino community,” said Leslie Layton, editor
of ChicoSol in Chico, Calif., “is that it’s retaliation for the rallies
in March.”
Cabrera of CHIRLA, who was among a cohort of immigrant rights leaders
that met with Obama at the White House last month, said that according
to the president’s own statements, it appears that the ICE actions will
not stop. The fact that there was no moratorium on ICE raids for the
2010 Census, Cabrera added, shows that the agency has no plans to halt
enforcement.
“The response [from the president] is, ‘What do you want me to do?
Not enforce the law?’” said Cabrera. “We say, ‘It’s hard to enforce
unjust laws justly.’”
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