Thread: Illegal immigration hearing held in Evansville Tuesday

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/a ... 0xhearing/

Illegal immigration hearing held in Evansville Tuesday
THOMAS LANGHORNE, Courier & Press staff writer
Tuesday, August 29, 2006

A congressional hearing on the hot button issue of illegal immigration attracted 200 people to The Centre this morning, where elected officials and experts jousted over the merits of House and Senate bills.

Four members of the 40-member House Judiciary Committee, including Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., heard testimony from and questioned a panel of experts.

Today's hearing was one in a series of Judiciary Committee field hearings across the country that are designed to point out perceived flaws in immigration legislation passed by the Senate in May.

Democrats have derided the hearings as a political stunt to delay House-Senate compromise negotiations over the two bodies' starkly contrasting immigration bills and to rouse the emotions of conservative voters before the November elections.

But Hostettler said afterward that the Evansville hearing was worthwhile because it helped clarify an issue that is vital to residents of Vanderburgh and surrounding counties.

"It has been my experience that citizens in the 8th (congressional) District are most concerned about this issue, and most concerned not only (about) the impact on our society, but the impact on their children someday to have a job in America," he said.

"As we heard testimony today, a lot of folks in this country begin their climb up the employment ladder with a job that could be taken away, and has been taken away in many cases, by an illegal alien. Congress must do the right thing, and continue to give the tools to the administration it needs to aggressively enforce our laws."

The campaign of Brad Ellsworth, Hostettler's Democratic challenger in this year's 8th district election, promised to comment on the hearing later in the day.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/a ... on-debate/

Is the immigration debate crossing the line?
By THOMAS B. LANGHORNE
Courier & Press staff writer 464-7432 or langhornet@courierpress.com
Wednesday, August 30, 2006


National leaders and experts debated the hot-button issue of illegal immigration in Evansville on Tuesday, drawing 200 people to The Centre.

The House Judiciary Committee field hearing, one of several held across the country this month, was intended to generate public support for a House-backed bill that jacks up fines for employers who hire illegal immigrants and focuses on border security and enforcement.

A competing bill passed by the Senate in May with the support of President Bush offers a path to citizenship for many long-standing illegal immigrants if they pay back taxes and a penalty, learn English and don't have a criminal record.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the only Democrat among the four congressmen who heard testimony Tuesday, repeatedly derided the field hearings as a political stunt and urged compromise with the Senate.

"We must roll up our sleeves and get to work on solving the problems created by the Bush administration instead of spreading fear of immigrants and driving further wedges between our citizens," Conyers said.

But Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Reps. John Hostettler, R-Ind., and Steve King, R-Iowa, were equally passionate.

The three congressmen said studies show tough employer sanctions and penalties for illegal immigrants will drive millions of them out of the country by eliminating their jobs, helping the low-skilled American workers who are most threatened.

Outside The Centre, supporters of immigrant rights carried small American flags and displayed signs in support of the Senate bill.

Freddie Peralta, a Lexington, Ky., resident and self-described legal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, distributed flags and chatted up people who were waiting in line to enter The Centre.

"The current immigration system is broken," declared Peralta, who wore a Kentucky Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform T-shirt. "It doesn't work, so people are forced to come to this country without documentation.

"What forces people to come here is actually the needs of the economy of the United States. You know, the jobs that are here. They come here because they are invited to work and they don't have the way of coming here legally."

Standing a few feet away, Evansville resident Gene Thweatt wasn't buying it.

"We must control our borders or we're no longer a sovereign nation," the 73-year-old Thweatt said. "We did (amnesty) in 1986, and this is the result."

Inside, the experts were no closer to agreement.

Dr. Steven Camarota, director of research for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, cited a recent Quarterly Journal of Economics study that he said shows immigration reduces wages by 4 percent for all workers and 7 percent for those lacking a high school education.

"Why do illegals reduce wages? The main reason is not so much that they work for less," Camarota said. "Instead, it's basic economics: Increase the supply of something - in this case less-educated workers - and you lower its price. And wages and benefits are the price employers pay for labor."

Ricardo Parra of the Midwest Council of La Raza cited studies that he said dispute such claims.

"Immigrant labor is needed to fill jobs in the U.S. that an older, more educated American work force is not willing to fill, especially at the low wages and poor working conditions many unscrupulous employers offer," Parra said. "Currently, there are approximately 9 million undocumented workers in the U.S. filling important gaps in the labor market."

Republicans and Democrats have even argued about the proper name of the Senate's bill, known in that body as the McCain-Kennedy bill for co-sponsors Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

But House Republicans routinely call it the Reid-Kennedy bill, inserting the name of Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Democrats charge that Republicans omit the GOP's McCain from the bill's name to make it appear less bipartisan. But Republicans say putting McCain's name on the bill was a Democratic ploy to give it a false sheen of bipartisanship, given that just 23 of 55 Senate Republicans voted for it.

Tuesday's field hearing saw a few tense moments between the congressmen and the experts.

King told Parra much of his testimony was irrelevant to the House and Senate's bills because it addressed legal immigrants instead of illegal immigrants.

The Iowa congressman also got Camarota to dispute Parra's estimate of 9 million working illegal immigrants. Camarota put the number at 6 million or 7 million.

Hostettler and Conyers skirmished briefly, with Conyers suggesting 11 million illegal immigrants will not leave America if their jobs disappear.

"What's the likelihood of them coming forward and saying, 'OK, you got me, we passed the House bill, and it says that we've got to report to be deported,'" Conyers said to titters of laughter from the audience.

At Conyers' urging, Parra added, "I don't think anybody would self-deport."

But Hostettler elicited from Camarota that the INS estimates 150,000 illegal immigrants self-deport every year, while another 50,000 are deported.

"There's this mistaken notion that everyone's fleeing desperation," Camarota said. "But all the research shows most people who come, actually already had a job; they just wanted higher wages, which is perfectly understandable."