Thread: New immigration reform bill filed in House Dec 15th

Now they will all be legal and can sign up for health insurance - presto! No illegals admitted to health Care.

When does the American citizen say enough? Congress is no longer listening. I don't know if we can last until 2010 to clean house and senate, but the Democrats are solidifying their base with millions of voters. It is all about taking power without firing a shot - just taking power and abusing it.

Desert Cactus

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New immigration reform bill filed in House

Eagerly awaited legislation to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants was filed in the House of Representatives Tuesday, but chances of passage were unclear.
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In their first public appearance since being released from immigration detention, Venezuelan brothers Jesús and Guillermo Reyes were cheered by friends and classmates Monday during a rally at Miami Dade College in Kendall to support their fight against deportation.

The rally, attended by about two dozen students, turned into a demonstration for the DREAM Act, a long-standing bill in Congress that -- if ever passed -- would give green cards to children of undocumented immigrants.

Jesús evoked the ideals of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King to equate the fight for the DREAM Act to the struggle by blacks for equality. ``My dream is not too different from the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King,'' Jesús told supporters in a speech that often sounded like a preacher's sermon and a clarion call to action.

Bill would give undocumented legal status

Hispanic, black, Asian and other House lawmakers backing immigration overhaul called Tuesday for legalizing illegal immigrants in the U.S., despite a weakened economy and joblessness.

The coalition of lawmakers said Tuesday immigration reform can protect American workers as well as bring into the mainstream economy productive immigrant workers who have lived in the shadows because of their illegal status.

"For those who say that given the state of our economy, given the unemployment rate, this is not the time, I would say to you there is no wrong or right time. There is a moral obligation," said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

A second chance, a note of thanks

We want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who supported our request for temporary relief from deportation. We are thankful to Sen. Bill Nelson, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, Alcee Hastings, Kendrick Meek, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Miami Dade College, fellow students, church groups, our lawyers, friends and strangers.

Their assistance and efforts have been invaluable during this difficult time. We thank, too, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security officials for giving us a temporary reprieve and the opportunity to continue with our studies. We will work tirelessly and do our best while we are in the United States to give back to the community that means so much to us and to the country we love so dearly.

GUILLERMO and JESUS REYES, Kendall

One more terrible thing to waste

Among the people who enrich my life is a Korean-born 23-year-old writer who recently completed graduate work at Columbia University and a 22-year-old Chilean-born artist completing his college education in Miami.

I wish I could be more specific. It is not in my nature to withhold information. But divulging more about them could put them at risk of deportation. Both, you see, are undocumented immigrants, who were brought to this country as children.

These young adults are among the almost 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. But not too long ago, they were considered children, who account for 15 percent, or 1.8 million, of the country's undocumented population.
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Haiti advocates step up efforts to secure temporary protected status
Haiti advocates step up efforts to secure temporary protected status

A diverse group of local leaders and their allies is stepping up efforts to secure temporary protect status, or TPS, for Haitians.

On Monday, the group -- which includes everybody from church leaders to hip hop artists -- will gather at a Little Haiti center to call on the Obama administration to grant TPS to Haitians in the United States, a designation that would allow some 30,000 undocumented Haitians to remain in the country temporarily with a work permit.

The administration is reviewing the possibility of issuing TPS to Haitians, though President Barack Obama said this summer that an immigration overhaul would have to wait until next year.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@ElNuevoHerald.com

Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., on Tuesday filed the first comprehensive immigration reform bill in the current Congress, giving renewed hope to millions of undocumented immigrants in South Florida and around the country.

But the prospects for passage remain as uncertain as ever.

``This is a great thing for everyone,'' said Walter Lara, a 23-year-old former Miami Dade College student from Argentina who almost got deported in July after immigration officers discovered he had no papers. ``If this passes, this is the type of change President Obama has been talking about. It will make the United States a more welcoming country.''

Provisions in the Gutierrez legislation -- Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 -- are somewhat similar to those in prior bills.

Undocumented immigrants in the United States prior to Dec. 15, 2009, would be encouraged to come forward and register with the government in exchange for a future path to residency and citizenship.

Certain immigrants in deportation proceedings, facing removal or ordered to depart would be able to apply for legalization under Gutierrez's bill. Applicants would pay a $500 fine -- lower than the thousands of dollars sought in prior bills -- and must have clean criminal records. If approved, applicants would receive a six-year visa, which eventually could be replaced by a green card -- the path to possible citizenship.

The bill also incorporates provisions of the DREAM Act, separate legislation filed earlier that would provide green cards to children of undocumented parents who are in high school or college and were brought to the United States as minors.

As Gutierrez, an eight-term House member representing a Chicago district, unveiled his legislation at a news conference on Capitol Hill, immigrant rights activists in Miami and other U.S. cities stepped up efforts to convince federal lawmakers and the Obama administration to embrace immigration reform as a priority.

Several South Florida groups are organizing news conferences, a march to Washington by young students and a hunger strike in January -- initial steps in what is expected to be a national campaign by immigration activists on behalf of immigration reform.

OPPOSITION

Similar bills in recent years have failed because of fierce opposition by conservative and anti-immigrant forces. Whether the political climate has changed is difficult to say, but most experts say debate on immigration reform will be as emotional and polarizing as the healthcare reform debate.

President Obama has signaled he will push immigration reform, but not until healthcare reform is out of the way.

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who supports immigration reform, criticized Gutierrez's bill because it disrupts efforts by him and a group of bipartisan lawmakers drafting a separate immigration reform bill.

``This effort today, a showhorse not workhorse effort, is throwing a hand grenade into the midst of the bipartisan efforts,'' said Diaz-Balart.

Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., echoed his brother saying Gutierrez's bill ``will probably destroy the chances of passing any real reform.''

Longstanding opponents vehemently criticized Gutierrez's bill.

``The bill proposes to reduce illegal immigration by making all illegal immigrants legal,'' Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Tex., a longtime legalization opponent, said in a statement.

LOCAL EFFORT

Lobbying efforts by local immigration activists are already under way.

Gaby Pacheco, a Miami Dade College student spearheading a local campaign for the DREAM Act, briefed members of the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board Tuesday.

On Friday, Pacheco and her group -- Students Working for Equal Rights -- will join other immigrant rights groups for a news conference at the New Beginning Church of Deliverance of Little Haiti to outline their pro-immigration reform plans.

The local campaign centerpiece is next month's hunger strike and the walk from Miami to Washington. Four members of the group, including Pacheco, will walk to urge support for the DREAM Act and immigration reform.

Another group plans to enter a local church and begin a fast to demand the suspension of detentions and deportations of immigrants with U.S. citizen children and spouses, and of migrant students until Congress passes immigration reform.

At the news conference, Pacheco's group will join other organizations including the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Centro de Orientación del Inmigrante and WeCount! to urge Congress and the White House to be more forceful on immigration reform. ``Florida's immigrant communities and allies feel that neither Congress nor the Obama Administration is doing enough to ease the suffering of immigrant communities,'' the organizations said in a statement.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/1383865.html

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who supports immigration reform, criticized Gutierrez's bill because it disrupts efforts by him and a group of bipartisan lawmakers drafting a separate immigration reform bill.

``This effort today, a showhorse not workhorse effort, is throwing a hand grenade into the midst of the bipartisan efforts,'' said Diaz-Balart.

Does anyone have any info on these "bipartisan efforts" and separate bill?

Reading that made first want to puke, then want to scream and then want to throw this computer at the television.

"make this a more welcoming country"

You've got to be joking. The US has been the most "welcoming country" in the history of mankind to a fault, to a level of self-destructive stupidity the world not soon forget. The world will look at the US and marvel at how the nation once admired and so many dreamed to be gave it all up, threw it all away, because it couldn't enforce its own immigration laws or secure its own borders from unarmed poor people, so it became what it was specifically created never to be, which was where they'd come from.