IMMIGRANT RIGHTS REPORT:Monday, March 27, 2006 AM/PST

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Guest Worker Issue Tops Immigration Debate: Monday, March 27, 2006 AM
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Senate tackles the hot-button election issue of what to do with the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants this week, with President Bush coming down on the side of letting many of them stay if they have jobs.

Bush planned to use a naturalization ceremony for swearing in 30 new citizens Monday to press his call for a "guest worker" program. The Senate Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, faced a midnight deadline for completing a bill.

"We must remember there are hardworking individuals, doing the jobs that Americans will not do, who are contributing the economic vitality of our country," the president said in his weekend radio address.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, calls for tougher border security have dominated debate over the knotty problem of controlling immigration.

But a tough immigration-enforcement bill passed by the House last year has galvanized forces that want worker programs for illegal immigrants already in the country.

"We will not accept enforcement-only approaches," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.

Immigration reform advocates scheduled a rally Monday at the U.S. Capitol, where dozens of members of the clergy planned to wear handcuffs to protest what they said is the House bill's criminalization of their aid programs for poor immigrants.

More than 500,000 people rallied in Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding that Congress abandon the House-passed measures that would make being an undocumented immigrant a felony and erect a 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Similar but smaller protests were held in Dallas, Phoenix, Milwaukee and Columbus, Ohio, among other cities.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, said Monday it would be unrealistic to round up and deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Instead, he told CBS' "The Early Show," the United States should create a "path toward legalization" based on whether the immigrants are lawabiding, pay takes, are learning English or demonstrate other "positive behavior."

He said the U.S. should work with Mexico on joint border patrols and "more enforcement on the border that is sadly lacking" now.

Senators up for re-election this year are being forced by the debate to juggle the demand from voters for tighter borders to keep out terrorists and businesses who look to the tide of immigrants to help fill jobs.

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday his panel will get a bill to the full Senate before Tuesday, even if it has to work "very, very late into the night."

"If they're prepared to work to become American citizens in the long line traditionally of immigrants who have helped make this country, we can have both a nation of laws and a welcoming nation of workers who do some very, very important jobs for our economy," Specter said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Senate aides met into the evening Sunday in advance of a Judiciary Committee meeting to debate legislation, but there was no evidence of a breakthrough on the issue most in dispute. Lawmakers have been divided on whether illegal immigrants should be required to return to their home country before they become eligible for U.S. citizenship.

Whether or not the committee produces a bill, Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to open two weeks of Senate debate on the issue Tuesday. Frist, R-Tenn., has offered a measure that would punish employers who hire illegal immigrants and provide more visas. It sidesteps the issue of whether to let illegal immigrants already here stay.

Employers and immigration advocates prefer a bill drafted by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., that would allow illegal immigrants to become eligible for permanent residency after working for six years. Both McCain and Frist are likely candidates for the Republican presidential nomination next year.

Another approach offered by Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would let illegal immigrants get temporary work permits for up to five years. They would have to leave the United States but could then apply for legal re-entry.

Aides to Specter, Cornyn, Kyl, Kennedy and McCain spent much of the congressional recess last week trying to find a compromise that would stave off Frist's bill.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-immig27mar27,1,5133973.story

Senate Joining the Fray Over Immigration: March 27, 2006
A GOP rift may widen over how best to fortify the border with Mexico, fill jobs and address the 12 million people in the United States illegally.

By Nicole Gaouette, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — After massive nationwide street protests this weekend, the Senate is set to begin debate, for the first time in a decade, on the emotionally charged subject of immigration.

The Senate's deliberations, scheduled to start Tuesday and extend over the next two weeks, could reshape a national immigration system that is widely perceived as failing the foreigners who want to enter the United States, citizens who expect it to prevent illegal border crossings and employers who look to it for workers to fill jobs that many Americans refuse to do.

The senators will determine whether flaws in that system should be addressed solely with tough new criminal laws and stringent enforcement measures — such as those found in a bill, passed by the House late last year, that triggered demonstrations Saturday from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Or they may choose to include programs that give employers access to a future flow of workers, as President Bush has urged, and allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status.

Their choices will provide a barometer of Bush's waning influence over a Republican Party increasingly on edge about midterm elections. Their debate is likely to not only color the meeting between Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox, in Cancun, Mexico, later this week, but also to lay bare the fractures that the issue creates within the GOP on social, economic and security grounds.

The issue pits two of the party's core constituencies against each other, with social conservatives insisting on tough enforcement and the need to protect American culture and the business lobby calling for a reliable source of labor.

Even as immigration has divided the GOP, it has also allowed several of the party's 2008 presidential hopefuls to position themselves for campaigning in the months to come.

Whatever legislation emerges from the Senate would have to be reconciled with the House bill before it could reach the president's desk to become law, but the divisions are so deep that many wonder whether immigration reform will get that far.

"The challenge isn't so much what happens in the Senate, it's in that conference committee with the House," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), co-sponsor of a leading bill with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), said in an interview Sunday.

"The risk that's out there is that the Senate's version is so vastly different than what the House will accept, or they feel we're not serious about security issues, that it won't get to the president's desk," Cornyn said.

"Or, in what would be a worst case for employers, we have enhanced border security and employer verification, but no way for them to get workers."

The Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration matters, is working under a March 27 deadline imposed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Though it looked close to a compromise 10 days ago, the committee goes into its final meeting today struggling to bridge a core breach over whether illegal immigrants should be able to earn citizenship.

"I think we're going to run out of time," said Cornyn, who sits on the committee.

The committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), predicted Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that the committee would complete its task. "We're going to get the bill out tomorrow," he said. "We may have to work very, very late into the night, but we will."

Specter backs comprehensive legislation that includes enforcement measures, a guest-worker plan and a provision allowing the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already here to remain legally.

But if no consensus is reached on the Judiciary Committee proposal, the Senate will instead debate an enforcement-only bill introduced by Frist.

Senators who back a guest-worker plan or legal status for illegal immigrants will have to bring those measures to the Senate floor as amendments to Frist's bill, a process that will be considerably more chaotic and argumentative than committee debate.

Frist, who is seen as a likely White House contender in 2008, assembled a get-tough bill that includes both a border fence and provisions that make being in the United States illegally — or knowingly providing services or assistance to undocumented immigrants — a felony.

But it ignores Bush's call for a guest-worker program. As a result, Frist would have to contend with a threat from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to block any legislation that does not include such a plan.

Because many Republicans and Democrats are under pressure from business interests that want access to labor, particularly in the agriculture, service and construction industries, it might be hard for Frist to garner the 60 votes he would need to prevent a filibuster of his bill.

Perhaps aware of that, he said earlier this month that he expected a guest-worker program to be part of the Senate's final legislation, but he emphasized that he was against an amnesty provision.

Another senator with presidential ambitions, John McCain (R-Ariz.), co-authored a bill with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) that is backed by business, church and immigrant groups and provides guest-workers and illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

That issue of citizenship will be a lightning rod in Senate debate. Cornyn and Kyl are among those who balk at any proposal for amnesty. Their bill includes a guest-worker program without a path to legalization and requires those here illegally to leave the U.S. within five years. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has introduced a bill that would make it easier to agricultural workers to stay in the country.

Bush, who has shifted his rhetoric to embrace the concerns of law-and-order Republicans, ruled out citizenship for guest workers in his Saturday radio address, saying that "amnesty would be unfair" and "would encourage waves of illegal immigration."

He will speak on immigration again today at a naturalization ceremony for new citizens, as the Judiciary Committee meets in a final attempt to find middle ground and the Senate prepares to begin debate.

* INFOBOX BELOW

Behind the debate

The House has already passed legislation aimed largely at securing the nation's borders. But in the Senate, many Democrats and some Republicans believe that a border crackdown should be paired with a mechanism that would allow more foreigners to enter the country legally to work.

Schedule

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee is to begin its final day of talks on legislation that it will bring to the full Senate. On Tuesday, the full Senate is expected to begin debate.

Issues

• Guest workers: Some senators, as well as President Bush, say efforts to stop workers from crossing the border illegally will not succeed unless the nation creates a legal way for a workers to enter the country. Opponents say a guest-worker plan would only draw more illegal workers here.

• Amnesty: Some senators are adamantly opposed to any program that would give legal status to workers who are here illegally, calling that a form of amnesty for lawbreakers. Others insist the nation should bring undocumented workers out of the shadows, using the legal status as an incentive.

• Criminalization: Both the Senate Judiciary Committee bill and a measure from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) would make being an illegal immigrant a criminal offense. Democratic senators have tried unsuccessfully to have that measure removed from the Judiciary Committee bill. If the debate moves to the Senate, it is likely to become emotional.

Players

• President Bush: He has spent years pushing Congress to adopt a guest-worker plan, a top priority for businesses that rely on immigrant labor. At the end of this week he meets with Mexican President Vicente Fox. Immigration is likely to be a tense subject.

• Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.): He is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose immigration bill may form the basis for Senate debate. He backs a guest-worker program and a plan to allow many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S. to stay, though without gaining citizenship.

• Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): The Senate majority leader has proposed his legislation that focuses on border security and does not include a guest-worker plan. Frist's measure was seen by some as an effort to distinguish himself from a potential rival for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who backs a guest-worker program.

• Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.): He wrote a bill with McCain including a guest-worker program that leads to legal status, as well as a program offering illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

• Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas): With Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), he has written legislation that has tough enforcement measures along with a guest-worker program. It requires illegal immigrants to leave the country within five years.
*Source: Times staff writer Nicole Gaouette

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/national/27immig.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1143475497-+Sw2BJHk+cyCLuO6gR0S2g&pagewanted=all

Groundswell of Protests Back Illegal Immigrants: March 27, 2006

Farm workers, union members and supporters rallied in Los Angeles on Sunday as the Senate prepared to open debate Monday on immigration.
Monica Almeida/The New York Times

By NINA BERNSTEIN

When members of the Senate Judiciary Committee meet today to wrestle with the fate of more than 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, they can expect to do so against a backdrop of thousands of demonstrators, including clergy members wearing handcuffs and immigrant leaders in T-shirts that declare, "We Are America."

The authorities estimated the number of demonstrators on Saturday in Los Angeles at 500,000.
But if events of recent days hold true, they will be facing much more than that.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Rallies in support of immigrants around the country have attracted crowds that have astonished even their organizers. More than a half-million demonstrators marched in Los Angeles on Saturday, as many as 300,000 in Chicago on March 10, and — in between — tens of thousands in Denver, Phoenix, Milwaukee and elsewhere.

One of the most powerful institutions behind the wave of public protests has been the Roman Catholic Church, lending organizational muscle to a spreading network of grass-roots coalitions. In recent weeks, the church has unleashed an army of priests and parishioners to push for the legalization of the nation's illegal immigrants, sending thousands of postcards to members of Congress and thousands of parishioners into the streets.

The demonstrations embody a surging constituency demanding that illegal immigrants be given a path to citizenship rather than be punished with prison terms. It is being pressed as never before by immigrants who were long thought too fearful of deportation to risk so public a display.

"It's unbelievable," said Partha Banerjee, director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, who was in Washington yesterday to help plan more nationwide protests on April 10. "People are joining in so spontaneously, it's almost like the immigrants have risen. I would call it a civil rights movement reborn in this country."

What has galvanized demonstrators, especially Mexicans and other Latin Americans who predominate among illegal immigrants, is proposed legislation — already passed by the House of Representatives — that would make it a felony to be in the United States without proper papers, and a federal crime to aid illegal immigrants.

But the proposed measure also shows the clout of another growing force that elected officials have to reckon with: a groundswell of anger against illegal immigration that is especially potent in border states and swing-voting suburbs where the numbers and social costs of illegal immigrants are most acutely felt.

"It's an entirely predictable example of the law of unintended consequences," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, who helped organize the Chicago rally and who said he was shocked by the size of the turnout. "The Republican party made a decision to use illegal immigration as the wedge issue of 2006, and the Mexican community was profoundly offended."

Until the wave of immigration rallies, the campaign by groups demanding stringent enforcement legislation seemed to have the upper hand in Washington. The Judiciary Committee was deluged by faxes and e-mail messages from organizations like NumbersUSA, which calls for a reduction in immigration, and claims 237,000 activists nationwide, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has long opposed any form of amnesty, including a guest-worker program advocated by President Bush.

Dan Stein, president of the federation, acknowledged the unexpected outpouring of protesters, but tried to play down its political significance. "These are a lot of people who don't vote, can't vote and certainly aren't voting Republican if they do vote," he said.

But others, noting that foreign-born Latinos voted for President Bush in 2004 at a 40 percent greater rate than Latinos born in the United States, said that by pursuing the proposed legislation, Republican leaders might have squandered the party's inroads with an emerging bloc of voters and pushed them into the Democratic camp.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that of more than 11 million illegal immigrants, 78 percent are from Mexico or other Latin American countries. Many have children and other relatives who are United States citizens. Under the House measure, family members of illegal immigrants — as well as clergy members, social workers and lawyers — would risk up to five years in prison if they helped an illegal immigrant remain in the United States.

"Imagine turning more than 11 million people into criminals, and anyone who helps them," said Angela Sanbrano, executive director of the Central American Resource Center of Los Angeles, one of the organizers of Saturday's rally there. "It's outrageous. We needed to send a strong and clear message to Congress and to President Bush that the immigrant community will not allow the criminalization of our people — and it needed to be very strong because of the anti-immigrant environment that we are experiencing in Congress."

Like many advocates for immigrants, Ms. Sanbrano said the protesters would prefer that Congress passed no immigration legislation rather than criminalizing those who are here without documents or creating a guest-worker program that would require millions to go home.

In a telephone briefing sponsored last week by the National Immigration Forum, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr., president of the National Hispanic Association of Evangelicals, warned that elected officials would pay a price for being on the wrong side of the legislative battle.

"We are talking to the politicians telling them that the Hispanic community will not forget," he said. "I know there are pure hearts that want to protect our border and protect our country, but at the same time the Hispanic community cannot deny the fact that many have taken advantage of an important and legitimate issue in order to manifest their racist and discriminatory spirit against the Hispanic community."

Seventy of the nation's 197 Catholic dioceses have formally committed to the immigration campaign since the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops began the effort last year, and church officials are recruiting the rest.

Meanwhile, priests and deacons have been working side by side with immigrant communities and local immigrant activist groups.

Leo Anchondo, who directs the immigrant campaign for the bishops' conference, said that he was not surprised by the size of the protests because immigration advocacy groups had been working hard to build a powerful campaign. "We hadn't seen efforts to organize these communities before," Mr. Anchondo said. "It's certainly a testament to the fact that people are very scared of what seems to be driving this anti-immigrant legislation, to the point that they are coming out to make sure they speak and are heard."

Last night in downtown Los Angeles, Fabricio Fierros, 18, the American-born son of mushroom-pickers who came to the United States illegally from Mexico, joined about 5,000 Mexican farmworkers gathered for a Mass celebrating the birthday of Cesar Chavez.

"It's not fair to workers here to just kick them out without giving them a legal way to be here," Mr. Fierros said, "To be treated as criminals after all the work they did isn't fair."
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John M. Broder and Rachel L. Swarns contributed reporting for this article.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-032706bush_lat,0,7910236.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Senate Struggles to Craft Immigration Reform Compromise
By Johanna Neuman, Times Staff Writer
9:34 AM PST, March 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee today attempted to craft an immigration reform bill that would stave off attempts by the Republican leadership in Congress to punish businesses for hiring undocumented workers.

With clergymen rallying on the steps of the Capitol to protest another bill already passed by the House that could criminalize church aid programs for poor immigrants, President Bush urged fellow Republicans in Congress today to "move beyond the tired choices and harsh rhetoric of the past" in the debating immigration reform.

"No one should play on people's fears, or try to pit neighbors against each other," said Bush, addressing a naturalization ceremony for 30 new citizens from 20 countries. "No one should pretend that immigrants are threats to America's identity, because immigrants have shaped America's identity."

Bush favors a guest-worker program for the estimated 11 million undocumented workers now in the country, and has called for "a civil and dignified" debate.

But tempers have already frayed on Capitol Hill, where politicians facing re-election have been weighing constituent demands for border security against business needs for immigrant workers -- even as immigrant groups rally for humanitarian treatment.

The Senate Judiciary Committee faces a midnight deadline on a 300-page bill that would beef up border security, create a guest-worker program and allow illegal immigrants to eventually apply for citizenship.

As the committee began laboriously working through each provision of the bill today, members urged Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to quicken the pace.

At one point the committee got embroiled in a debate over whether Americans could give emergency medical treatment to illegal immigrants without facing criminal prosecution. The provision to bar medical treatment failed.

Whether or not the committee completes its work, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) plans to open a two-week debate on the issue in the Senate tomorrow.

Frist has authored a bill that only addresses border security, mirroring the tough enforcement-only aspects of the House bill without providing any way for illegal immigrants to work in the U.S. But Frist has said he will withdraw his bill if the Judiciary Committee comes up with a more comprehensive approach.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) have proposed a bill that would create a new visa program for immigrant workers, and allow them to apply for permanent residency after six years.

Another approach, offered by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and John Kyl (R-Ariz.), would let illegal immigrants get temporary work permits for up to five years, after which they would have to leave the country. Then, they could apply for re-entry.

More than 500,000 people rallied in Los Angeles Saturday, demanding that Congress reject the House bill, which would make it a felony to be an undocumented immigrant and erect a 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

President Bush, who has called on Congress to increase the number of green cards that can lead to citizenship, to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Cancun, Mexico on Thursday and Friday.
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Times wire services contributed to this report.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/politics/25protest.html?fta=y&pagewanted=print

20,000 in Phoenix Rally for Immigrant Rights: March 25, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES, March 24 (AP) — Thousands of people across the country protested Friday against legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants, with demonstrators in cities including Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta staging school walkouts, marches and work stoppages.

Congress is considering bills that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the border with Mexico. The proposals have angered many Hispanics.

The Los Angeles demonstration led to fights between black and Hispanic students at one high school, but the protests were largely peaceful, the authorities said.

In Phoenix, the police said 20,000 people marched to the office of Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican and the co-sponsor of a bill that would give illegal immigrants up to five years to leave the country. Officials said it was one of the largest protests in the city's history.

Mr. Kyl pointed out that most were speaking out against the House bill making it a felony to be an illegal immigrant, not against his bill, which would also step up border enforcement and create a temporary guest-worker program.

In Georgia, activists said tens of thousands of workers did not show up at their jobs after calls to protest a state bill that would deny state services to adults living in the country illegally. The House passed the bill on Thursday, but it has yet to gain Senate approval.

In Atlanta, about 200 protesters converged on the steps of the State Capitol, some wrapped in Mexican flags and holding signs saying "Don't panic, we're Hispanic" and "We have a dream, too."
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