http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.d ... 08015/1086

May 8, 2006


Commerce chief backs citizenship for illegal immigrants

Urges tourism industry to back immigration reform

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO - U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez urged tourism industry leaders Monday to help support legislation that eventually would offer citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants.

"This is probably the most important domestic issue of our time," Gutierrez told conferees at the Travel Industry Association's annual Pow Wow meeting, a convention where the U.S. travel industry shows off its offerings to international travel buyers.

Immigration reform can give the United States a competitive advantage by improving the economic dynamism of the country and providing a work force that can support the pensions of retirees, said Gutierrez, who immigrated with his family from Cuba as a 6-year-old boy.

Immigration legislation pending in Congress has triggered large street demonstrations and produced divisions in both political parties.

The U.S. House has passed a bill to make illegal immigrants felons and authorize 700 miles of border walls. Under a Senate bill, immigrants in the U.S. longer than five years could apply for citizenship without leaving the country. Those in the U.S. for more than two years but fewer than five would be required to go to a border point of entry, but they could return quickly as legal temporary workers.

The temporary worker program supported by President Bush "provides a sensible, legal way to match willing foreign workers with willing American employers who cannot find Americans to do the job," Gutierrez said. "What I've just described is not automatic citizenship but offers a legal way for them to come out of the shadows."

The Travel Industry Association didn't plan to take a position on immigration legislation but was relying on the hoteliers and restaurateur associations to support the immigration reform, said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the travel organization.

Tourism leaders told conferees that they worried the United States was losing its marketshare in the world tourism market because of a lack of national marketing money, a lengthy tourism visa application process and post-911 security procedures at airports and borders that turn off some visitors.

Delta Airlines CEO Gerald Grinstein said the industry needed new technology that would provide less obtrusive security measures.

"America ... has attracted people from all other countries but now the experience people have when they get to America is 'Get in line. Take your shoes off, take your lap top out, show me your boarding pass,'" Grinstein said. "If we're going to achieve our goal of being a welcoming place, that has to be brought under control."