Thread: State responds to immigration reform

By STAN OKLOBDZIJA / Vida en el Valle

(Published Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 11:01AM)
SACRAMENTO — Although Bao Yan Chan's story begins in Canton, China, it could just as easily find a home in Guadalajara or Morelia.

Speaking Tuesday at a press conference held by Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, Chan spoke of long hours, the low pay and the language barrier that stood between her and the American dream she left her home 32 years ago to find.

Yee's press conference, which he used to announce a new resolution that would bar the use of public money to identify undocumented immigrants, was just one of the many ways state lawmakers have begun to weigh in on the controversial immigration reforms currently being debated on the U.S. Senate floor.
Through legislation, radio addresses and even trips to the frontlines of the immigration debate, many in the legislature nurtured hopes of changing the way California deals with the estimated 2.4 million people living clandestinely within its borders.

Against a backdrop of nearly 75 elderly members of San Francisco's Community Tenants Association, Yee spoke vehemently against HR 4437, a bill passed by the House of Representatives in December that, among other things, would make being in the United States without documentation a felony.

"The government has no business trying to ID who is documented and who isn't," Yee said. "I'm tired for all of us having to legitimize ourselves and tired of parents having to explain to their children every few years whether they're going to be here or not."

Adam Keigwin, Yee's Press Secretary, said the resolution should be introduced sometime this week.

Assembly Speaker Fabián Núñez, D-Los Ángeles, made a two-day trip to Washington D.C. on March 28 to meet with several members of California's congressional delegation, as well as México's ambassador to the United States, Carlos de Icaza.

"We have about a third of the total population of undocumented immigrants," said Núñez. "The jobs they do for the most part are the most undesirable...For the good of our economy we need to bring undocumented people out of the shadows and into the mainstream."

Núñez said the latest legislation emerging from the Senate's Judiciary Committee "has a lot of promise," because it deals with border security, has a guestworker program with a path to permanent residency and does not make a deliberate attempt to criminalize immigrants.

Núñez said part of his trip to the capitol was to promote cooperation between Mexico and the United States, particularly California.

"México is (California's) No. 1 trading partner," Núñez said. "We have to tell people on the other side that their capital is as valuable as our own."

Núñez also urged collaboration with the Mexican government in helping solve the immigration problem. President Bush, he said, should use last week's meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox in Cancún to Mexican President Vicente) Fox step up and take an open letter to the Mexican Congress that stipulates a positive bilateral cooperation. If the Mexican Government puts resources on the table, this debate can continue in the right direction."

Núñez also lashed out against HR 4437. The way to meaningful immigration reform is cooperation with all parties involved, he said.

"The way to do it is not to erect a Berlin Wall," he said. "(HR 4437) isn't worth the paper it's printed on."

Across the aisle, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger weighed in with a letter published in the Los Ángeles Times on March 28.

In it, the Governor urged getting tough on undocumented immigrants who commit serious crimes while in the United States.

"One strike and you're out," Schwarzenegger wrote. "No excuses, no delays."

The governor also took a strong stand against granting amnesty to those in this country illegally.

"Granting citizenship to people who are here illegally is not just amnesty...it's anarchy," he wrote.

Sam Blakeslee, a Republican Assemblyman from San Luis Obispo, wrote a letter to the San Luis Obispo Tribune on March 28 detailing legislation he introduced in late January.

AB 1894 would have certain personnel from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations, the organization who manages California prisons, receive training from the Department of Homeland Security in immigration enforcement.

According to Blakeslee's estimation, California currently incarcerates about 18,000 illegal immigrants, at a total cost of $750 million a year.

By training correctional officers to identify illegal immigrants, Blakeslee said California could better take advantage of federal programs that reimburse the cost of jailing the undocumented.

In addition, "proper identification of these felons ensures that they will be released to federal immigration authorities for deportation after their sentence is served, thereby preventing them from being sent back to our neighborhoods and communities," he wrote.

Blakeslee concluded his letter by saying he firmly supported legal immigration, as it contributes to the strength and dynamism of the nation. All Americans, however, should "join together to put an end to illegal immigration."

As of press time, Blakeslee's bill was being heard by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Send email to: soklobdzija@vidaenelvalle.com






© 2006 The Fresno Bee

Be careful who you vote for!

These foreigners may sound like they will do a good jobs, but in fact, they are changing our whole system, twisting and turning our laws to suit themselves...

Before long we will have no laws worth fighting for.

The government has no business trying to ID who is documented and who isn't," Yee said.

Really? Then who does have the business to find out who is in our country and where they are and what they are doing here?? The illegals should do it I suppose??

RR

this article doesn't say whether Bao Yan Chan' is a LEGAL immigrant or an illegal invader. If he's not a naturalized CITIZEN he doesn't have an opinion and is not entitled to free speech