Patrick calls for immigration reform
By BECKY W. EVANS
revans@s-t.com
November 18, 2009 12:00 AM

BOSTON — A new task force appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick has 90 days to develop a plan for integrating immigrants and refugees into community and economic life across the state.

The task force must review a new report containing 131 policy recommendations for areas, ranging from education to public health to employment, where the state could do a better job of welcoming its nearly 1 million foreign-born residents.

"We must celebrate and integrate today's immigrants into today's society," Patrick said Tuesday during a Thanksgiving luncheon sponsored by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Immigrants make up 14 percent of the state's population and 17 percent of the work force. And "more often than not" they are taxpayers, Patrick said.

"Every day they enrich the community, economy and culture in ways great and small," he said.

Patrick said the New Americans Agenda report — one of only four of its kind in the nation — offers "weighty findings," including the need to establish policies against racial, ethnic and religious profiling and to eliminate the current backlog for state-funded English classes, something he noted his administration is starting to address.

The governor also acknowledged two of the report's recommendations have proven controversial: allowing undocumented minors to pay in-state college tuition and increasing access to driver's licenses by not requiring a Social Security number.

In July 2008, Patrick launched the New Americans Agenda project after signing an executive order calling for the Governor's Advisory Council on Refugees and Immigrants to study ways for integrating immigrants and refugees.

The yearlong study included public meetings in New Bedford and other immigrant communities, where residents were invited to share their concerns.

Public safety, driver's licenses, translation services at hospitals, protecting immigrant workers from exploitation, and the need to publish fishing regulations and other public information in multiple languages were among the issues raised at the New Bedford meeting, held last December.

Corinn Williams of the Community Economic Development Center and Helena Marques of the Immigrants' Assistance Center partnered with the advisory council, MIRA and the state Office of Refugees and Immigrants to organize the meeting. More than 100 people participated in small groups, broken down by language, including English, Portuguese, Spanish and Creole.

Both Williams and Marques attended the Thanksgiving luncheon at the statehouse, where attendees were reminded that Native Americans welcomed the Pilgrims and taught them how to grow local crops.

Marques said she hopes implementation of the report's findings will "remove some of the fear and anxiety that our immigrant community is facing."

Williams noted the report's finding that immigrant entrepreneurs need more support, from basic information about licenses, permits and taxes to better access to loans and credit.

Immigrant entrepreneurs, such as those who have opened businesses on Acushnet Avenue, "can add spark to local economic development," she said.

Patrick said the task force must review the report and identify recommendations where the state "can and should" take action.

He said implementation of the recommendations will help the state prepare for comprehensive federal immigration reform, which President Barack Obama will pursue "early next year."

Project funders included the Carnegie Corp., Hildreth Stewart Charitable Foundation, The Clowes Fund, and Partners HealthCare.

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