Expressing their frustration and anger with the lack of action by the Obama administration and the Congress, hundreds of immigration activists staged a rally on Capitol Hill, pressing for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws to offer a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States.
The event, featuring participants waving the US flag and flags of several Latin American countries, coincided with the release of a new immigration-reform blueprint released by Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force.
Melissa Lozano, 27, who traveled from Morristown, N.J., to attend the rally and prayer vigil, said U.S. immigration policy is "a broken system that criminalizes immigrants, separates families and exploits families that are here working hard."
But the drive for action this year could be complicated by the results of a new poll of Mexican attitudes obtained by The Washington Times, which found that a majority of Mexicans say that if the U.S. pardons illegal immigrants, it will encourage more of them to cross the border illegally and that most Mexicans think their countrymen living in the U.S. should still owe their loyalty to Mexico.
The poll, conducted by Zogby International and commissioned by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a group that favors stricter immigration limits, is being released on Wednesday. It found that 56 percent of Mexicans surveyed said their friends and family would be more likely to cross the border illegally if the U.S. government passes a bill to legalize those already here.
"The message is clear. No matter how they are sold to the public, amnesties don't work," said George W. Grayson, a CIS board member and Mexico specialist who helped frame the wording of the poll questions. "In fact, they are counterproductive because they raise expectations - and illegal migration - based on the belief that one amnesty will give rise to a second ... and a third."
Having slipped on his promise to sign an immigration bill this year, President Obama now says he wants to have that debate early in 2010.
But Mr. Gutierrez, who has taken over leadership on the issue after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's death in August, signaled that patience among the president's supporters is not infinite.
"Saying immigration is a priority for this administration or this Congress is not the same as seeing tangible action," he said. "The longer we wait, the more every single piece of legislation will be obstructed by our failure to pass comprehensive reform."
Ivonne Rivera of Washington immigrated to the United States from her native El Salvador 30 years ago and is now a U.S. citizen.
"We have a large population of people - 12 million - that have become a subculture living in the shadows, struggling in poverty and fear, and experiencing family separation," she said at Tuesday's rally.
But proponents of immigration reform will have to grapple with how to actually reduce future illegal immigration. Many lawmakers say they feel burned by the 1986 amnesty, which promised a one-time forgiveness in exchange for getting control of the border. Many lawmakers say the government followed through on the legalization, but not the security.
In 2007, the last time Congress debated the issue, the Congressional Budget Office said the bill that President Bush and Democratic leaders wrote would only reduce illegal immigration by about 25 percent. That bill failed to pass the Senate.
Steven A. Camarota, research director for CIS, said with one-third of Mexicans saying they know someone who lives in the U.S. already, "the social networks are already in place."
"If you legalize folks, you generally will encourage them to come," he said.
The CIS poll also found that 69 percent of Mexicans think that their countrymen living in the U.S. should show their primary loyalty to Mexico, and not the U.S. That finding could prove to be a problem for those who say immigrants need to do a better job of assimilating into the U.S.
The Zogby poll consisted of 1,004 in-person interviews of adults throughout Mexico. It was conducted in August and September. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
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Whomever was responsible for this blog completely failed to note that LEGAL immigrants are the ones who are suffering, not illegal immigrants. If someone is here illegally and separated from family, that is a mch smaller issue than people who are here legally, but stuck for YEARS in the legal immigration process because of Congressional limits on visas, and a broken process. What is the point of 'approving' someone for a visa and then making them wait years for it to be issued? What is the point of taking a year for Labor Certification when the job market itself does a better job? Why not simplify and speed up the immigration process and put hard time limits on people who don't make the cut? It's less cruel and cheaper to operate than the existing broken and delayed system..
ReplyDeleteSoon America is going to be confronted with another out-of-control AMNESTY for the 20 to 30 million illegal aliens already here. This is not taking into account the millions who will follow on, once the word gets out through Central and South America and the rest of the world. Only the armed National Guard on our lax border will be able to stop the incursion of the destitute, the sick, drug dealers, slavers, foreign terrorists and a multitude other entering this country illegally. The church, unions, the Communist ACLU, US Chamber of Commerce, Council of Foreign Relations and radical, International groups all have their agendas. These Anti-sovereignty organizations must embrace there corrupted puppet politicians, that ostensibly wants to make this cataclysm come true?
ReplyDeleteThe driving force now behind this contradiction to his oath of Allegiance to American people is Rep.Luis Gutierrez's of Illinois, whose immigration enforcement since being in office is a (F-) grading according to NUMBERSUSA. The American Workers—MUST-- condemn this Immigration reform action by complaining to their indifferent Liberal Democrats and some Republicans at 202-224-3121. Don't let the aides reject you offhand as you want your representative to know? Currently 15 million US workers with the most sitting at home, sending out references, walking the streets and looking for work. Then this joker Luis Gutierrez is pushing for a second Amnesty? What are these politicians thinking, or do they think at all? My hope the taxpayers show him the door—ALL OF THEM--when he/she wants to be re-elected.
Gutierrez is just one of many who have blemished their own records of their loyalty to the American people? I just know that the last AMNESTY was an absolute failure, owing to the fraud that transpired. I think the majority of the US population knows that the majority of our politicians in every administration had no true intentions of ever securing the border, or enforcing any immigration law. This has been proven over and over again, with Senators like Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Janet Napolitano that have all genuflected to the demands of businesses big and small. It seems for decades that it’s been mandatory that we must support the world’s poor? The evidence has irrefutable shown that their disregard for US labor in Obama's stimulus bill, the potential health care reform and whatever deviant law, they place in the Senate and House to support the illegal immigrants and families once they break into America? WE welcome a millions or more legal immigrants each year? Even police departments are reprimanded as Arizona Sheriff Joe Araipo, who is carry out duties, our government seems them the cold-shoulder.
INSTEAD OF JUST A CIVIL INFRACTION, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION SHOULD BE PENALIZED AS A FELONY? THAT'S WHY THEY KEEP ON COMING? We should demand of those who represent us that E-Verify should be implemented immediately as mandatory, with no exemptions. Everybody in the workplace Must be verified. No more voluntary E-Verify? Every police department should be trained to apprehend and question any individual they see fit to check? No more of this Liberal Socialist political correctness garbage on racial profiling? We should have a federal force to audit I-9's, with the defiant ones going to prison. ICE should have larger funding with more interior and border agents, to sweep down on illegal business activities. Identify for yourself those politicians who are involved in corruption at JUDICIAL WATCH site. Our nation is silently being dismantled by the globalists and those who wave the banner for them.
ReplyDeleteSmall states will miss out big time on federal dollars in the 2010 Census, while mass illegal immigrant states will gain more seats in Congress and too much power and influence in general elections? California specifically, because of the handicapped zombie Liberal Democrats In Sacramento, who should be thrown out of office into a garbage dump, owing to the billions they used underwriting the illegal alien population. They caused the financial crisis in the once-Golden state, by ignoring the millions of illegal aliens, gang bangers bleeding San Fran and Los Angeles dry of revenue. Of course ICE could check the immigration status of those who are counted, even though it's supposedly against US law? Or is counting 20 million plus (?) non-legal residence against the US Constitution? But then these politicians do not recognize what is illegal from illegal anymore? Democrats are still endeavoring to give the children of illegal immigrants, access to colleges and university. Our children should come first because we are citizens and permanent residents.
Don't let sympathy cloud your mind to our own countries deterioration, the infrastructure and uncorrectable overpopulation. Each year our State and federal taxes go ever higher, to pay for the illegal immigrants, their emergency care, education, their extended circle of relatives that enter under family reunification. THE TAXPAYER HAS BECOME THE BREADWINNERS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS IN THIS COUNTRY AND THE WORLD. IT MUST STOP!