Thread: Accusations reign at Immigration hearing in New Hampshire

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs ... /608250321

Article published Aug 25, 2006
Immigration hearing
Accusations reign Immigration hearing has some of the first and a lot of the second
By Chelsea Conaboy
Monitor staff


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A federal hearing on immigration law held at the State House yesterday focused as much on political fingerpointing as it did on border security and immigrant status.

Five members of the House Judiciary Committee came to New Hampshire as part of a national tour to debate differing immigration bills in the House and Senate.

The House bill focuses almost entirely on beefing up border security and classifying undocumented immigrants as felons, while the Senate bill calls for changes at the border and a plan to give illegal immigrants now in the United States a path to legal work and citizenship.

The hearing was open to the public, but no one from the audience was allowed to speak. Brief testimony was given from five predetermined witnesses.

Throughout the the hearing and in press conferences that followed, Democratic committee members blasted Republican leadership for delaying negotiations on the issue by taking the committee on a "political road show," with a stop in a state where two Republican congressman are fighting for their seats. Republicans tried to dispel the accusations and blame senators for the delays.

Chairman James Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin who sponsored the House bill, said the hearings were meant as an opportunity "to get input from local people." But only one of three speakers chosen by the Republican majority, Rep. Andrew Renzullo, a Hudson Republican, was from New Hampshire.

Another, Steven Camarota, is the director of research at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies and has testified before the committee several times. He said immigrants pose a net loss to the economy because they have limited education. Those who have less than a high school education cause a drain of $89,000 each, he said.

"There is, if you will, a high cost to cheap labor," he said.

John Young, who runs an apple orchard in New Boston, was a witness for the Democratic minority. He told the committee that farmers need more foreign workers to fill a labor shortage. He called the current guest worker program expensive and unresponsive.

The few hundred audience members who had gathered in Representatives Hall clapped and whooped after his testimony, prompting Sensenbrenner to warn them that such expressions are against committee rules.

Peter Gadiel, representing 9/11 Families for a Secure America, called undocumented immigrants "thieves in the night" and said the Senate proposal would further the faults of the system that allowed the terrorists of Sept. 11 to enter the country unquestioned.

"Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime," he said.

Sensenbrenner said the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Senate bill would cost $127 billion. The House bill, he said, would cost $1.9 billion.

Democratic committee members said that doesn't include the cost of collecting the more than 12 million immigrants who would be considered felons and deporting them.

"How would we find them?" said Massachusetts Congressman Martin Meehan. "Would we round them up? Would we put them on some planes? How would we know which planes to put them on? How many planes would it take?"

Camarota said the goal is not to round them up but to make living as an undocumented immigrant more difficult. "The goal is to increase the roughly 150,000 who go home on their own each year," he said.

Before the hearing, a few dozen protestors against the House bill organized outside. Among them was Paul Ladd, who wore a t-shirt that read "LegalizetheIrish.org."

Ladd overstayed a holiday visa in 1995 and runs a construction company in Boston that employs 15 people seasonally. He was arrested last week when he could only show an Irish license when stopped at a commercial checkpoint. He must go to a hearing in December and could be deported within weeks of that meeting.

"It's been the toughest thing I've ever had to deal with," Ladd said. "I don't know where I'd ever start in Ireland."

On the sidewalk nearby Bob Casimiro of Weymouth, Mass., held a sign that read, "No Surrender. No Amnesty." Casimiro has spent time in Arizona with the Minutemen, a group of civilian border volunteers. There, he saw that "there is no border security." That must be in place before Congress can deal with those already in the United States, he said.

Democratic committee members repeatedly criticized the tour of hearings as a waste of time and unproductive, saying the committee should not be meeting in New Hampshire, but in Washington, D.C., in a conference with senators. Meehan called it a political ploy.

"We think doing nothing is better than doing something because we're going to have an election in November, and we'll make it seem like we're doing something so tough that we can't do anything," Meehan said. "I think that's wrong."

New Hampshire Congressmen Jeb Bradley and Charlie Bass sat with the committee. Bass laid out his ideas for changes to immigration law, including better means for state and local law enforcement to address immigration issues and heavy penalties for employers who higher undocumented immigrants.

Bass said he's glad the tour came to New Hampshire.

"I have no objection to the idea that we would have the debate in Concord, New Hampshire or Concord, California or anywhere else in the United States, because it's good for America to participate in this important issue," he said.

Democrats challenge Bradley and Bass on their support for funding border patrols, saying they voted down several measures to allocate money after approving the Homeland Securities Appropriations Act. Bass's offices dismissed those votes as mostly procedural ones that didn't affect funding or policy.

Congressman William Delahunt, also from Massachusetts, said he thinks the committee came to New Hampshire specifically for Bradley and Bass.

"There are two very competitive fights going on here for House seats that could very well decide who controls the House," he said.

Sensenbrenner said Bass invited the committee to come. Bass's office said it was the opposite: The committee asked him to host the hearing, and he agreed.

The committee has held hearings in Texas and California. More are scheduled for Indiana and Iowa.

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"It's been the toughest thing I've ever had to deal with," Ladd said. "I don't know where I'd ever start in Ireland."

How about the same way you started when you came here.

Democratic committee members repeatedly criticized the tour of hearings as a waste of time and unproductive, saying the committee should not be meeting in New Hampshire, but in Washington, D.C., in a conference with senators. Meehan called it a political ploy.

When are these Democrats going to stop whinning and start listening? I've watched several of these hearing on C-SPAN and each one was full of whinning Democrats whom were not interested in listening to the opposition, all they wanted to do was argue their points and whin. I think this committee hearings would be better served by dismissing the Democrat members or at least encouraging them to listen and ask questions, not constantly argue their points and blame everything on the Republicans (both sides are to blame). Furthermore, it's a known fact that more Democrats (a lot more) are for providing an illegal immigrant path to legalization (amnesty).