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Plans in U.S. House irk immigration advocates

BY ERIN ZALESKI
Medill News Service
State Sen. Miguel del Valle and several local immigration advocates are decrying a recent decision by House Republicans to hold a series of immigration hearings across the nation this summer -- a move they say could hinder the adoption of immigration reforms that passed the Senate.

"It's unfortunate that the House leadership, beginning with the Speaker of the House (Dennis Hastert), who is also a congressman in the state of Illinois, has decided to basically put off having a full Congress deal with immigration," del Valle said.

"This adversely affects the lives of millions of individuals in the country who are waiting for Congress to come up with comprehensive immigration reform legislation," added the Chicago Democrat, who is the assistant majority leader of the state Senate.

The U.S. Senate bill calls for establishing a guest worker program, strengthening border security and providing the opportunity for illegal immigrants to remain in the country and become citizens. The series of hearings is set to begin this month and will take place in states along the Mexican border, including California and Texas.

Several immigration advocates also believe the hearings will stall the passage of reform legislation before the November elections.

"It is clearly an attempt by the House Republican caucus to avoid any consideration of meaningful immigration reform prior to the fall election," said Paul Zulkie, a Chicago immigration lawyer and the past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "This does nothing to solve our broken immigration system."