Thread: Immigrants get promise of reforms

Apparently, the Democrats have no compassion for the American people who will have to live with the devastating environmental consequences and staggering multi trillion dollar financial costs of amnesty. Americans are simply the Democrats' meal ticket to future votes.


Immigrants get promise of reforms
Bill will pass, Emanuel tells rally

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... &cset=true

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 15, 2007

A reform bill to legalize millions of immigrants will pass Congress this year, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) promised more than 1,500 cheering people at a Saturday rally in his Chicago district.

"The Democratic leadership is committed to this," Emanuel said. "This will be the year we get this done."

Activists and immigrants, including a Mexican factory worker caught in a February raid and a Polish small-business owner whose wife faces deportation, joined the latest call for reform that picked up on the momentum generated by several large marches in Chicago last year.

Support was strong for a House bill filed in March by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) that would allow most immigrants to stay in the country. He and Emanuel listened to the stories of several who have suffered under current law and promised to share them with other members of Congress.

It's part of putting a face on the struggles of an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

"I came here this afternoon to fill my heart and soul with more energy," Gutierrez said. "I wanted Rahm to hear these stories because every time I hear them, it transforms me."

Gutierrez is traveling across the country to drum up support for the bill, which would allow immigrants who arrived before June of last year to stay in the country if they pay a $500 fine, pass background checks and prove employment. After six years, immigrants could become permanent residents if they pay $1,500, learn English and have not committed a crime. The bill also would allow as many as 400,000 guest workers to enter the job market.

The two congressmen also talked strategy at the rally at the Copernicus Foundation in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said he planned to court votes from Republicans.

"My goal is 218 votes, and not just Democrats," Emanuel said. "We've got to make this a big tent."

The bigger the better, he said, given that immigration reform has proved difficult for Congress. Conservatives have pushed for stricter border enforcement and have been reluctant to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country, while liberals and some moderates insist on a pathway to citizenship.

The rally was organized by about a dozen community and faith groups, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Albany Park Neighborhood Council and the Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform. Also signaling their support were members of the labor and business communities, including Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union.

"We are in this fight with you," Medina said. "The time for justice for immigrants is now."

Many in the audience were brought to tears as several shared their experiences.

Maria del Carmen Santana, 46, was arrested with 16 others in February during a raid at the Cano Packaging facility in Arlington Heights. The mother of two who moved to Chicago from Mexico City in 2001 was in jail for two weeks before her family raised $7,000 from the community to post bail.

"This is what happens without reform," Santana said in Spanish. "The word [of the raid] spread fast. Many people I know live in fear."

Tony Wasilewsi, 38, became a U.S. citizen four months ago after living in Chicago for 18 years, he said. He and his wife, both Polish immigrants, have a 6-year-old son and own a small cleaning company with more than a dozen employees.

But now his wife is scheduled to be deported in May.

"How should I explain to my son that his country doesn't want his mother?" he said. "We have done nothing wrong. We need to fix this broken law."

"We've done nothing wrong."

How can the issue be logically discussed when the folks don't even believe they did anything wrong?! This article in our local paper was of course accomplanied by faces of 'immigrants' holding American flags and signs.

Keep focused on the important:

"My goal is 218 votes, and not just Democrats," Emanuel said. "We've got to make this a big tent."

Fedup,

You do it like this

Imigration Policy should be set by it's citizens, the Mexicans have a policy which is far more restrictive than ours. It was chosen by Mexican citizens and protects them far better than our government has. So, do you really want to come up here to another country and say that we it's citizens should not have the same rights as Mexico's own citizens in your country. What do you think politicians will do for your rights when they have been trying to cut away ours.