Thread: Hearing brings immigration debate to Dubuque

http://www.crgazette.com/2006/09/01/Hom ... earing.htm

Hearing brings immigration debate to Dubuque
Published: 09/01/2006 4:50 PM
By: Associated Press - Special to The Gazette
DUBUQUE, IA - There's a national groundswell for comprehensive immigration reform, but political posturing will prevent Congress from taking action before November's midterm elections, representatives from both parties said Friday.

"I don't think we get anything accomplished between now and January," Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said after a field hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.

King blamed Democrats for the lack of action, but a Democrat on the committee questioned whether Republicans were more interested in the politics of the issue than legislation.

"(Republicans) decided to hold ... hearings, because it was thought that we could provoke America and it would raise polling numbers," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.

Jackson Lee noted that the hearing was held in Dubuque, one of the largest cities in the hotly contested 1st Congressional District.

The hearing by five members of the Judiciary Committee was one of a series being held across the country focused on immigration. The hearing attracted about 150 people to Dubuque as well as the sharp opinions, protests and counter protests that follow the issue.

The crowd appeared evenly split between people who want more strict immigration laws and those who oppose a House plan that focuses solely on border enforcement.

The committee heard from five witnesses, including U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dubuque City Council member Ann E. Michalski.

Grassley opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants, saying the policy didn't work.

"If you don't learn from history ... you're subject to repeat your mistakes," he said.

Michalski said she believed something needed to be done about immigration, but she also emphasized that immigrants are an integral part of their communities.

"They not only contribute to our community, they contribute to our local economy," she said. "We're a richer community for it."

The difference of opinions among audience members was clear.

Nita Shinn, an environmental consultant from Chicago, said she drove to Dubuque for the hearing. Shinn -- who said she favors more immigration enforcement -- leapt to her feet and tried to speak as the committee's chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., gaveled the meeting to a close.

Afterward she rushed to tell Sensenbrenner and King how much she appreciated their insights.

"We just need to enforce the law," she said, before tapping King on the shoulder and telling him, "We loved your fence, congressman. I saw it on TV."

Shinn was referring to a model of a border fence, which King built and displayed while speaking during debate on Capitol Hill.

Others, such as Salvador Carranza and David Duren, both of Madison, Wis., traveled to Dubuque to voice their view that the hearing was a sham, designed to rally the Republican base.

"It's clear these hearings have been produced as a way to garner support," said Carranza, who like Duren is a member of a Wisconsin-based group called Latinos For Change and Advancement. "It's a road show. That's all this is."

Sensenbrenner disagreed.

"This is one of the most difficult issues we face ... " Sensenbrenner said. "I've learned something at every one of these hearings. I think they've all been very helpful."

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs. ... S/60901023

Immigration reform this year called unlikely
By TOM WITOSKY
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


September 1, 2006

Dubuque, Ia. — Gang members and drug pushers daily enter the United States illegally, along with thousands of Hispanic families simply seeking a better life, because U.S. border patrol officers are overweight, ill-equipped and even unable to swim the Rio Grande, a witness at a congressional hearing testified today.

But five members of the U.S. House of Representatives indicated that real legislative reform of the nation’s immigration laws likely will have to wait at least until after the November mid-term elections and possibly even until there is a new president in office in 2009.

“It is probably doubtful that anything will happen between now and November,” Iowa’s 5th District Congressman Steve King, a Republican said. “Unless something dramatic happens that would cause some kind of major shift, I wouldn’t be surprised if there won’t be any change until a new president is elected.”

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Texas Democrat, also predicted that immigration legislation is likely to addressed well after the current Congress ceases to exist.

“I have seen no evidence that the Republican leadership wants that this to be resolved any time soon,” Jackson-Lee said. “That is not what they are interested in achieving with this road show.”

That appeared to be the bottom line following a congressional hearing conducted here today by members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on immigration reform. House and Senate leaders are at odds over immigration legislation.

The Senate approved legislation to increase border security and provide ways for legal work and citizenship for most of the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers and a new guest-worker program for prospective migrants.

The Senate bill faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House, which has approved legislation to bolster border security, make illegal immigrants felons and finance the construction of miles of fencing on the southern border.

Today’s hearing was the final one of five House Judiciary Committee hearings held throughout the U.S. The hearing was also held in the same district where national Republican and Democratic congressional leaders have identified the contest between Republican businessman Mike Whalen of Bettendorf and Democrat trial lawyer Bruce Braley of Waterloo as one of the key races to determine control of the U.S. House.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia., said he opposed the Senate bill because he considers the guest worker program and other provisions to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. to be amnesty, similar to that granted in 1986 by Congress and then President Ronald Reagan.

“We have to learn from our mistakes and that was one what I made in supporting amnesty last time,” Grassley said. “That action alone is a major reason why we have up to 14 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today.”

The two-hour hearing not only sparked political controversy but also angry outbursts from some of the 150 resident of Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa who attended the hearing.

“I thought this was going to be a public hearing and we could have something to say,” said Nina Shinn, an environmental consultant from Chicago and adamant opponent of providing legal status to illegal immigrants. “Our laws are strong enough, but we just need to enforce them. I don’t need a politician to tell me that. In fact, they should know that themselves.”

But those who want a crackdown on illegal immigration and tougher border security measures weren’t the only ones displeased by what they heard from the four Republicans and one Democrat at the hearing.

“It was just the usual bunch of flim-flam as far as I was concerned,” said Peter Brown, a Democrat who grew up in Epworth, Ia, but now lives in the Minneapolis area. “This is just another example of how the Republicans use their wedge issues to whip up fear to win elections. They want us to believe that people who are just seeking a better life are terrorists.”

U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the judiciary committee, said the immigration issue “is one of the most controversial I have ever seen in our country.”
“We are polarized on this issue and there is more anger out there than I have seen in a long time,” Sensenbrenner said, adding that any kind of compromise on the issue among lawmakers will be difficult to achieve.

Meanwhile, Robert Lee Maril, chairman of the Department of Sociology at East Carolina University, painted a bleak and worsening picture of the conditions along the U.S. border and the amount of illegal immigrant traffic that crosses the border daily. Maril is the author of a controversial book “Patrolling Chaos: The U.S. Border Patrol in Deep South Texas.”

“There were times so many people would come across you couldn’t count them all,” said Maril, who was one of five witnesses along with Grassley and Ann Michalski, a member of the Dubuque City Council. “There were families who are seeking a new life coming and there are criminals and gang members among all of them.”

Maril, who has studied the U.S. Border Patrol and illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexican border for nearly 30 years, said not only are many patrol officers aren’t physically fit to deal with the demands of their jobs, but there also too few officers and none of them have the right equipment to do their jobs.

“Our men and women in the border patrol are individuals of whom we can be very proud,” Maril said. “But they are not adequately equipped nor professionally trained to meet the demanding and dangerous tasks when dealing with undocumented workers, illegal drugs, criminal gangs and potential terrorists.”

Maril also said that a simple strengthening of border security would fail without a comprehensive approach that also makes it easier for immigrants to work or stay in the United States.
“Attempts to limit the number of undocumented workers, by arresting and detraining them, in the short term achieves very little,” he said. “Except that it makes us feel better. The flow of illegal immigrants may stop for a few weeks, but it will resume as long as there are jobs here that pay more than $4 a day.”

After the hearing, Maril was asked what he thinks will happen along the border as Congress wrestles with immigration legislation during a highly volatile election year.

“That’s pretty simple,” he replied. “It’s just going to get worse.”

Immigration reform this year called unlikely
“It is probably doubtful that anything will happen between now and November,” Iowa’s 5th District Congressman Steve King, a Republican said. “Unless something dramatic happens that would cause some kind of major shift, I wouldn’t be surprised if there won’t be any change until a new president is elected.”



I do not believe that there will be an immigration reform , granting amnesty to millions .