Thread: Activists slam immigration plans

Activists slam immigration plans
Proposals include merit-based system, guest-only programs
BY LISA FRIEDMAN, Washington Bureau
LA Daily News
Article Last Updated:05/11/2007 09:52:44 PM PDT

WASHINGTON - With a major vote on immigration again looming in the Senate, advocates lashed out Friday at an emerging plan that includes issuing visas to foreigners based on employment skills and education levels instead of on family ties.

Activists fighting for lenient treatment of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. said they remain optimistic about the newest incarnation of immigration reform. But now, they said, their biggest worries involve the future of legal immigration.

"Some of the proposals on the table are deeply troubling," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

In particular, he and others pointed to discussions about a guest-worker program that does not give temporary workers a shot at citizenship, and a "merit-based" visa system that assigns would-be immigrants points based on job skills and education levels.

"When we hear slogans like `temporary means temporary' or that the number of green cards isn't likely to be adjusted, when many of us believe the problems we now have are because we don't have enough immigration slots, or when we hear about a point system that is a radically new concept ... we're concerned that we may end up reproducing the problems that we have now," Sharry said.

Other elements of the plan being devised by the White House and a handful of senators include a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but only on the condition that they first return to their native countries and wait up to 13 years.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday said he wants to give those negotiations a chance to yield a deal.

"Some senators feel a breakthrough could take place, but they will need all day Tuesday to do that," Reid said on the Senate floor Friday.

He also, however, is threatening to open debate next week on an immigration bill backed mostly by Democrats that passed the Senate last year.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the move would "give us the maximum opportunity to piece back together the bipartisan agreement that we thought we almost had a week or so ago."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday said she believes there is a chance for immigration reform, but said the Senate needs more time.

"Democrats and Republicans have been working together with two Cabinet secretaries for over a month on this issue but there is hard work left to do," she said.

Feinstein didn't take a position on the specific guest worker or visa proposals. But, she said, the final product should be a "practical, workable program that stabilizes our borders."

Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, blasted the merit system, saying it would undermine employers' ability to petition for workers as well as citizens and legal residents' abilities to petition for their closest family members.

She also called a temporary guest-worker program that curtailed or eliminated the ability of foreigners to become citizens a profound mistake.

"It says, `We don't want you to become Americans. We don't really want you to stay here,"' she said. "It's the French model. The American model, which has been `Come and participate and be one of us,' has been successful, and it's a mistake to change that."

Meanwhile, House members including Southern California Republicans like Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, and Gary Miller, R-Brea, are expected to strongly oppose any measure that grants any legal status to illegal immigrants.


http://www.dailynews.com/ci_5878279

If Frank Sharry and Cecila Munoz hate it, that hopefully means good news for us.

They won't be happy unless they GET IT ALL, will they!!

They won't be happy unless they GET IT ALL, will they!!

That's what I see......they just want a magic wand waved that says you're legal now. No fines, no nothing......poof you're legal.

In particular, he and others pointed to discussions about a guest-worker program that does not give temporary workers a shot at citizenship, and a "merit-based" visa system that assigns would-be immigrants points based on job skills and education levels.

This merit system sounds right to me.

Yes, I agree the merit system makes the most sense of anything they've thrown at us thus far.