In the midst of a polarized debate on immigration, politicians and the media continue to paint conflicting pictures of the influence of immigrants on our communities and the economy. In an effort to address these problems, the Senate previously hit a roadblock on June 7, when the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill that was being considered in the Senate was defeated. Senators failed to close off the debate and move toward a final vote. Just when you thought that immigration was over for the year, President George Bush would have none of that. However, George Bush and the Senate backers of the bill are pushing really hard to resurrect it.
A new immigration bill Senate Bill 1639 was introduced by Senators Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter earlier this week. The new bill is the same as the failed Senate bill Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill that was put together by a small group of bipartisan senators working with Bush. This time around, oddly enough, the same Senators who were instrumental in defeating the bill are giving life back to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill by attaching a series of amendments. It seems there was a change of heart soon after Bush met with the Republican senators who voted against the bill. The text for Senate Bill 1639 was made available to the public today, which can be viewed on GovTrack, the information clearinghouse that indexes all bills and roll call votes in the Congress. A copy of the proposed bill can be found at the end of this post.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the plan is to submit a series of amendments to the bill to appease their angry critics. The bipartisan group is secretly meeting again and once again are withholding information of the proposed changes from the American public in order to fast track this bill before the Fourth of July recess. How ironic, isn’t it? More alarming, is how the Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid bamboozled the Latino and the immigrant community by devising an “elaborate series of procedural maneuvers to allow a test-vote” today, June 21, Democrats.
Once again, the Democrats proved themselves to be hypocritical, they are no better than the Republicans they just ousted. Reid’s procedural maneuvering will give lawmakers even less time for consideration and deliberation than they had before, which means they literally will forgo various procedures that are associated in the lawmaking process – hearings, testimony, committee debate and amendments, floor debate, and the possibility of further amendments. Instead, this bill will be fast tracked through the Senate without a true debate and without providing us a chance to voice our opinions.
This bill is not a clash pitting nativist forces against big business “pro-immigrant’ forces. At the heart of this Senate proposal are: (1) further militarization of the border and the expansion of immigrant detention camps; (2) a “guest worker” program that will keep immigrants in slave-like conditions; (3) a “legalization” scheme to force undocumented immigrants to jump through many hoops to attain permanent residency; and (4) major restrictions on US Citizens and permanent residents to bring family members legally into the US, which would result in splitting families apart.
The proposal calls for new levels in the deployment of border patrol, hi-tech surveillance equipment, and detention of immigrants at the border. One of the key changes is to create of $4.4 billion to a newly created general fund, “Immigration Security Account,” (Section 2 IMMIGRATION SECURITY ACCOUNTS) that would the authorize Homeland Security to increase the militarization of the border. The $4.4 billion would come out of the fines and back taxes these undocumented immigrants are required to pay in order to apply for a temporary visa (Title VI, Section 611 AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS). The funds would be used to construct more walls, build more Concentration Camps, provide more surveillance equipment, develop an employment eligibility verification system, increase the number of armed agents on the border and the recruitment of former military troops from “the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard who have elected to separate from active duty” (Title I, Section 101 ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL).
(a) The first $4,400,000,000 of such penalties shall be deposited into the general fund of the Treasury as repayment of funds transferred into the Immigration Security Account under section 286(z)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The proposed bill would construct 20 new concentration camps that will have the capacity to detain a total of 20,000 individuals at any time. Currently, there 22,000 immigrants being detained by the Homeland Security. This would increase the number of beds to 6,700 beds, which would make the gain since 1994 virtually fourfold. These detention centers are meant to cage people up in an immigration human zoo and categorize them as criminals without trials, “aliens” not deserving of basic human rights.
It is ironic every immigrant (legal and undocumented) migrating into the US will be forced to foot the bill to increase the militarization at our border that is meant to keep them out. Today, thousands of immigrants who have the desired to have better life but do not have means to go through the process are forced to cross through dangerous desert and mountain areas that have already lead to hundreds of deaths each year.
Undocumented immigrants have been made into scapegoats for the insecurities and problems arising out of the workings of the capitalist system itself that are hitting most people. Through the reactionary media, the working class and those in the middle-class are constantly bombarded with the message that “illegal” immigrants are blamed for everything that has gone wrong in this country – from low wages to cuts in social services. This is an ugly game that is being played, it is intended to keep people from coming together to stand against the capitalist elites. This bill was seen for what it is once and it was opposed, yet, it is being defied and it is once again being pushed with very little notice.
All this underscores the urgency for immigrants and those who stand with them to resist this capitalist offensive. Those who are behind the bill apparently hoped to push it through “under the radar” and pass it without anybody noticing, need to be held accountable. There is a real need to build a strong united front that goes beyond the immigrant communities if we are ever to take on and defeat the anti-immigrant attacks.
x-posted on Para Justicia y Libertad
Download S.1639: The Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (PDF, 20 MB)
to the plight of immigrants, legal or otherwise. But to convince people to support positive change, imho, you have to walk the line and avoid inflamatory statements like this:
The desire to have a better life is a strong reason to want to come to the states, and many of these people have an even greater need, such as medical treatment that is unavailable to them in their country. But these people are not ‘forced’ to come here, they choose to. Portraying it any other way is not going to convince the general populace to help you reach your goals.
Sometimes people-poor people-become so desperate that they often feel as if they have no choices. I’m not saying your observation is completely wrong yet the mindset of many poor people does make them feel as if they no longer have choices. Like stealing food if you are hungry-that could be considered a choice yet the person doing the stealing may feel they finally had no choice.
I’m not trying to speak for all poor people just from my own personal experiences.
The trek north is not something taken lightly. It is true desperation from a rock-bottom situation that is caused by widespread poverty.
XP’s language is indeed inflammatory, but it is the truth of the situation outside of the U.S. bubble. I have a good friend who is going down to Michoacán next week to an area that has virtually no males left.
I think it’s easy for us to expect that possible immigrants try and build up their respective infrastructures first instead of coming here, but the situation is truly so bad that there is no choice. That’s why the whole system needs to be overhauled – including trade/economic dominance issues on the part of the U.S. – but the latter won’t happen under this corporate-owned government.
Hi Manny…I think something that is overlooked or not known when people here in the U.S. complain about Mexicans not staying in their own country and working to make things better is the fact that many people in Mexico are working/striking/protesting and trying to make life better for the people and workers there.
However as you said as long as their government and ours continues with Nafta and policies that benefit big business and corporations regular working people and the poor will continue to be screwed on both sides of the border.
I understand what you trying to say, but the problem is some of them are forced. We many define differently, but to the people who come here, each one has their own definition. Here is a story of Enrique and his mom.
Enrique is five years old when his mom, Lourdes, leaves Honduras because they are too poor to eat. The move allows her to send money back home so little Enrique can have a decent meal and go to school so he have education that is past the third grade.
As Lourdes tells little Enrique, don’t worry mijo, she’ll return soon, however, she doesn’t because the Land of Opportunity was not what it really was, so she is forced to stay here longer. As years pass by with a little boy begging for his mama to come back. What choice does she have, go back and live a beggar’s life? No, she forges on, so her son can have a better life than she is having now, but without her, little Enrique becomes lonely and troubled.
Eleven years have post, he is no longer little Enrique, so he has decided he will go find his mama. On his journey he has no money and nothing more than a slip of paper bearing his mother’s telephone number. Without money, he will make the dangerous and illegal trek up through Mexico clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains, encountering gang members and bandits who are willing to kill him in a blink of an eye. Corrupt cops all along the route are out to fleece and deport them. To evade Mexican police and immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call El Tren de la Muerte-The Train of Death. But the only thing that keeps him going is the love for his mother who he has not seen in 11 years.
Think I am making this thing up, sadly I am not. This story is based on Sonia Nazario’s book Enrique’s Journey.
Each step of the way, he and other migrants, many of them children are hunted like animals.
This is Enrique now.
This is Hugo Tambrís Sióp, 14, who lost part of his right leg and three toes on his left foot trying to come here. The picture links to other photos taken by the author of other injured migrants coming here.
The lobby for the prison industry must be thrilled at the prospect. Disgusting.
ah yes..the real intent of parts of this immigration bill…no real policies to help workers in either country but instead a giant boondoggle for some companies to make millions and billions of dollars on the backs of the poor desperate people..yeah it is beyond disgusting.
Be nice instead if that money was spent on foreign aid to Mexico to help build up their own infrastructure.
The military is also happy about this bill too.
They will do whatever will be most destructive to Americans plus it will have the added benefit of spending billions on useless surveillance crap, none of which they will use.
It is about the database, the database of secure biometric IDs, a no work list, more government contracts.
Camps? Are you kidding me? They can’t even handle the influx of passport applications in a timely fashion.
Once the NAU is complete, we can expect to see a mass immigration influx as multinational companies chock the small businesses and farmers out of business in the name of competition.
With the whole biometrics and ID, we are becoming the borg. Resistance is futile, we will assimilate.