Senate's immigration bill doesn't please all

Migrant groups, reform advocates both say it is not sufficient

THELMA GUERRERO
Statesman Journal

May 26, 2006

After weeks of heated debate and tough negotiations, the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a sweeping immigration-reform bill that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship.

However, for some Salem-area groups that represent or advocate for immigrants, passage of the measure is no reason to start lighting fireworks.

"The bill in its current form is unacceptable," said Ramon Ramirez, the president of Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United. "We need a more realistic solution to our broken immigration system."

As it stands, the Senate bill "would leave 2 to 4 million undocumented immigrants (who have been in this country less than two years) out of the system," he said, "and that would further divide families."

Aeryca Steinbauer, the statewide coordinator of CAUSA, an immigrant-rights advocacy group, said that the bill is riddled with flaws.

"We have a lot of concerns about civil rights and due process for immigrants," Steinbauer said. "The final bill needs to be simpler and address more of the undocumented population."

Both advocates said that their organizations would continue to work toward fixing the flaws contained in the Senate bill.

Daniel Quiñones, an agricultural and migrant seasonal farmworker representative with Worksource Oregon in Marion and Polk counties, said that approval of the legislation was "good news" for the ag sector in the state.

"Today, we planted a seed, and we hope to see its fruits in the near future," Quiñones said.

Rick Hickey, the vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, a nonprofit group opposed to illegal immigration, said that he was astounded that the bill was approved.

"There's nothing in this bill that increases enforcement against illegal immigration," Hickey said. "They've increased the fine against illegal immigrants, but the Senate did nothing to force employers to verify the status of immigrants they hire. I strongly disagree with this bill, and I think it's going to bankrupt our nation."

Both of Oregon's senators voted in favor of the bill.

Republican Gordon Smith previously said that he supported a guest-worker program, but not one that offered a path to citizenship.

Democrat Ron Wyden said in late April that he backed the Senate proposal that would allow undocumented immigrants the opportunity to become citizens.

Under the Senate bill, illegal immigrants who have been in the United States less than two years would have to return permanently to their native country.

Those who have been in the United States two to five years also would have to return to their homeland but will be allowed to return under a temporary worker program.

Illegal immigrants who have been here more than five years would be eligible for legal status.

With the Senate bill now a done deal, some are asking what sparked the emotionally charged immigration issue in the first place.

Bill Lunch, a political science professor at Oregon State University, said that nothing raises the issue of immigration like an election year.

"Polls show that the issue of immigration resonates with conservative voters, though not very much with liberals or Democrats," Lunch said in an e-mail. "So much of the political activity on it appears to grow out of a desire by Republican members of Congress, the House particularly, to change the subject from Iraq, since the war has grown so unpopular."

The Senate bill will next have to be meshed with a bill passed by the House in December.

That proposal would increase immigration enforcement and border security, build a fence along more than 600 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, make illegal entry into the United States a felony and penalize people who help illegal immigrants enter the country.

On the same day the Senate approved the comprehensive immigration reform bill, Mexican President Vicente Fox was on a four-day, three-state visit through three Western states.

"Fences are not going to solve this problem," Fox said Wednesday afternoon during a visit to Yakima, Wash.

tguerrer@Statesman Journal.com or (503) 399-6815

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