http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegio ... eid=107710

Advocates decry illegals crackdown
By Laura Crimaldi
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Local immigrant advocates yesterday blasted Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's pledge to end the ``catch and release'' policy that has allowed tens of thousands of non-Mexican illegal aliens to vanish inside the United States.

``The administration believes immigrants who are here to make better lives for themselves should be treated like fish,'' said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. ``The solution is to fix the (immigration) system so there is no incentive or need for people to cross the border illegally.''



Chertoff's promise to the Senate Judiciary Committee came as President Bush pushed his proposal to set up a temporary worker program for foreign nationals.

``I think this administration is making a mistake and a lot of people are going to pay for it,'' said Fausto Da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston.

Da Rocha fears the end of ``catch and release,'' which has recently allowed 120,000 of the 160,000 non-Mexican nationals caught by the Border Patrol to be released, could lead to dragnets for illegals in established Brazilian communities.

However, at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., officials said it was about time the government took a hard line on border patrol. ``We have an alien crime-spree that is national in scope, and this comes about by the nation refusing to enforce its immigration laws,'' said spokesman John Keeley.

Many local immigration advocates support a bill sponsored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would provide visas for up to six years, after which the worker must either leave the country or be in the pipeline for a green card.

``New Orleans needs to be rebuilt. We need this labor,'' said Laura Medrano, vice president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.