Crucial time for immigrants – both legal and illegals

(Note: Today, January 21, 2011, Yahoo! News reported that several states are considering introducing legislation similar to Arizona's immigration law that allows local police authorities to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants, which  U.S. federal judge said was illegal. Below is an article I wrote on March 23, 2006, when the immigration issue was one of the most talked after President George W. Bush proposed a sweeping immigration reform that would allow for illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.) 

STARTING Monday, March 27, 2006, the Senate is expected to debate and eventually vote on what might be the most controversial immigration reform bill since the 1986 amnesty that allowed illegal aliens in the U.S. become permanent residents. With both pros and cons battling it out, this week will be a telling event if the Senate chooses to make undocumented immigrants stay here and become legal residents or define them as criminals just like what House members in December of 2005 in their own version.

The action by the House of Representatives is the most severe legislation yet in as far as treatment of both illegals and those “harboring” them is concerned. The bill crafted by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis, will classify the estimated 12 million undocumented aliens as “criminals,” and would also penalize those hiring them or those extending services to them – a measure described as “inhumane” by the Catholic Church which has vowed to defy it if it becomes law.  In the Senate, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa, in his sponsored bill, went Bush’s way of strengthening border control but at the same time paving the way to make undocumented workers legalized thru a guest worker program good for six years. It also includes a way for earned adjustment that would allow illegal aliens to become permanent residents provided they depart the United States before they can become green card holders.

A decent proposal but still shy of the other bill by offered by (the late) Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Ma and Sen. John McCain (R-Az), which will allow illegals to become permanent residents and may even become citizens without going back to their home countries. A third measure, this one by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx) and Sen.  Jon Kyle (R-Az), is harsher in that it provides for the construction of a border fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and denying automatic citizenship to babies born in the U.S. by nonresidents. One more bill, this time by Majority Leader Sen. Bill Frist, also calls for reinforcing border control but doesn’t allow for any relief for illegal aliens.

Many Republicans are against earned adjustment for illegal aliens. They term this as amnesty – “plain and simple.” They say any measure that allows for anyone who has violated the law and may become legal, gets pardoned, is an amnesty.  What’s encouraging however is that Pres. Bush is in favor a guest worker program because he understands that many companies are run by workers whose jobs Americans don’t want to do for themselves. Making them go home will also result in disruption of business which America cannot afford at a time when some businesses are already sending jobs abroad for cheaper labor and compete globally.

It is no secret that many of our kababayans are praying for a comprehensive immigration reform that would allow illegals become legal. We recite the same prayer too.  Along with all other immigrants, we believe that our kababayans are hard workers, intelligent and possess many talents whose economic contributions to our adopted country are enormous. They are not criminals, and those who hire them never intended to violate the law just because no Americans would want to work for them.

While most of the pending bills differ from each other, almost all provide for increasing the number of work visas, which only means that the U.S. needs more workers even if anti-immigrant forces claim that such program impacts salaries, health care and education. Perhaps they should be reminded that health care and education are paid for by taxes – both by these individuals who work here and by the companies that hire them, legally or not. 

We would also like to pacify those in the legal pipeline, who are concerned that such measure would clog the already backlogged immigration quotas, that they should not worry as their jobs are secured because those who are already here perform the jobs that they are “overqualified to do.” And just like you and me, these people work to earn a living, to feed their families. They’re not here to become criminals as some of our congressmen think they have become.(Rhony Laigo)