Thread: Protest supports illegal workers in San Francisco

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Posted on Wed, Mar. 22, 2006

Protest supports illegal workers

By Nathaniel Hoffman
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Calls for legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants now living in the United States echoed Tuesday outside the Federal Building in San Francisco.

Spurred by an immigration enforcement bill the House passed in December and concerned with the way Senate debate over immigration reform is going, people calling for "justicia" -- "justice" in Spanish -- are sounding their cries louder.

"What we are asking for is nothing new," United Farm Workers of America co-founder Dolores Huerta said Tuesday at the San Francisco rally. "It's time for a new legalization program."

The rising voices come in response to the immigration reforms the House approved by a large margin last year.

HR 4437 would allow felony charges against those illegally living in the United States and enable prosecution of people who assist undocumented immigrants and construction of more fences along the Mexican border. It does not include provisions for a guest worker plan backed by President Bush or give amnesty to undocumented workers already living and working here.

"If you want to have a debate about that, fine, but we've got to do something about enforcement now," said Steven Camarota, a researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies.

The felony penalties are aimed at terrorists and criminals and would not affect most illegal immigrants, he said.

Legalization of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, and the more than 400,000 in the Bay Area, is a priority for the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition.

A group of supporters will fast and rally in front of the Federal Building all week to urge the Senate and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to consider the rights and needs of immigrants and their families.

"The immigrant community, more than anyone else, deserves a voice on this," said hunger striker Renee Saucedo, an attorney with La Raza Central Legal in San Francisco.

The demonstrators are coming late to the reform table where Congress and other immigration factions have been gnashing their teeth for months. Broad legalization proposals are not among the competing immigration bills before the Judiciary Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has given the committee one more day -- March 27 -- to produce an immigration reform package. Committee members last week leaned toward stringent standards for legalization of those already here and a guest worker program.

"It's not to say it's a slam dunk," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum. "I suspect it's still going to be contentious."

Kelley, who represents a coalition of business, labor and immigration groups in Washington, is lobbying for a plan that helps the undocumented workers and for a guest worker program.

Members of Bay Area immigrant groups say the formative Senate compromise takes the wrong approach.

"The idea behind the hunger strike is to send a message to elected officials that the entire architecture of the bill is flawed," said Chris Punongbayan, advocacy director at Filipinos for Affirmative Action.

"Our position is that guest worker programs are completely untenable. When you tie your immigration status to your employer, the worker doesn't have a true voice to be able to express dissent on the job."

Punongbayan is also concerned about proposals for data sharing among employers, the IRS, Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security.

The Bay Area coalition -- including more than 50 groups -- also fears that the criminalization of illegal immigration that the House approved and is being seriously considered in the Senate could become law.

Another concern is how legislation in both houses expands the definition of immigrant smuggling, said coalition director Sheila Chung.

"Even giving an undocumented immigrant a glass of water would be considered a felony," she said.

That interpretation of the bill is ludicrous, said Camarota in a phone interview from Washington. Making immigration violations criminal offenses would be just another tool for prosecutors to stop suspected terrorists or other criminals who enter the country, he said.

"We're going to continue to treat, for the most part, illegal presence in the United States as administrative law," Camarota said. "I don't see it as much of a threat to anybody."

The way to handle undocumented workers is to begin deporting them as quickly as the immigration agencies can handle the cases, he said. He also wants to limit the number of new visas available.

Huerta, at the San Francisco rally, said that every 20 years -- in the 1960s and again in the 1980s -- the government has given amnesty to large numbers of undocumented workers and that it is time again.

Hunger striker Cesar Cruz, a teacher from Richmond and once an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, said the immigrant community is finally feeling a sense of outrage.

"They can't believe that it's OK to be the nanny, the cook, the farmworker for this society, but we can't even get any kind of basic rights."


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Nathaniel Hoffman covers immigration and demographics. Reach him at 925-943-8345 or nhoffman@cctimes.com.

Hunger striker Cesar Cruz, a teacher from Richmond and once an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, said the immigrant community is finally feeling a sense of outrage.

"They can't believe that it's OK to be the nanny, the cook, the farmworker for this society, but we can't even get any kind of basic rights."

They should be outraged at themselves for breaking our laws.