Thread: In Houston, anger, applause for failed immigration bill

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June 29, 2007, 2:22AM
LOCAL REACTION
In Houston, anger, applause for failed immigration bill
Some immigrant rights advocates, opponents agree defeat a good thing


By LORI RODRIGUEZ, JAMES PINKERTON and SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Reaction in Houston to the immigration bill's stunning defeat Thursday in the Senate was fast, furious and unpredictable.

Some immigrant advocates actually applauded the defeat, saying the bill was bad for immigrants and for the country. But, others, like Nelson Reyes, executive director of the Gulfton Area Neighborhood Organization, expressed raw anger over the doomed reform measure.

''We thought that the Senate was more mature about issues but, again, politics have prevailed," said Reyes, who emigrated from El Salvador in 1990. ''How in the world are they saying, 'OK, we're not going to do anything. We're going to continue implementing the immigration law we have right now, and, if that means we continue persecuting 12 million people, so be it.' "

The Senate voted Thursday to block a final vote on the legislation, stalling the reform effort in Congress this year. The bill would have provided legalization for most of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants, a temporary guest worker program and more border enforcement.

University of Houston immigration expert Nestor Rodriguez was not surprised by the bill's collapse.

''The opposition is so entrenched that the people who wanted the bill, including the president, couldn't overcome it," Rodriguez said.

"It shows President Bush's declining power and influence within his own party, because that's where the majority of the opposition is coming from. So it's kaput."

Immigration advocates predict the bill's defeat will propel leaders to politically organize immigrants, help them naturalize and get them to vote.

"We're very motivated," Reyes said. "Texas is one of the states closest to Mexico, and our own U.S. senators helped killed the proposal. We won't forget that."


Protest date marked
In April, as Congress braced itself for the contentious immigration debate, the University of Houston marked the one-year anniversary of the day thousands of immigrants spilled onto U.S. streets in protest.

Lorenzo Cano, associate director of the University of Houston Center for Mexican-American Studies, organized a seminar on the issue.

''The way the bill was going, with so many negative amendments added to it, in the short run, maybe it's better to have no bill than a very bad bill," Cano said Thursday.

A controversial feature of the legislation was a profound shift from an immigration system that has focused on reuniting families.

Instead, entry to the U.S. would have been granted based on a point system heavily weighted toward those with skills and education.

That change was heavily opposed by Hispanic immigrant advocates, including Cano, as well as the Roman Catholic Church.

''It didn't answer the question about how individuals who have lower skills, but who we nonetheless need, would be able to come here to work legally," he said.

Just as immigrant rights advocates fell on both sides of the issue, anti-immigrant rights leaders welcomed the defeat of a proposal they labeled a reward for illegal immigrants.

Ardell Barr, a 69-year-old Clear Lake resident and member of Texans for Immigration Reform, helped lobby against the legislation, sending about 16 e-mails to senators on Wednesday. She was among those celebrating on Thursday.

''They were trying to push something through that was flawed," Barr said. ''We definitely need to do something, but doing something wrong is not the answer."

Barr was joined in her sentiments by Felix Rodriguez Ortiz, a member of the Coalition of Mexicans Living Abroad in Houston.

''My opinion, and the opinion of a lot of people, was it was better they didn't pass anything because it was going to be bad," Rodriguez Ortiz said. "It wouldn't benefit anyone, not the immigrants or the government."

Longtime Harris County Constable Victor Trevino, who came to Houston from Mexico as a child, said the failure "leaves us in limbo."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/pol ... 30740.html

''How in the world are they saying, 'OK, we're not going to do anything. We're going to continue implementing the immigration law we have right now, and, if that means we continue persecuting 12 million people, so be it.' "

Illegal aliens and their proponents don't get it and will never get it. That is why pressure to self deport and enforcement to force deportations is the only answer to THE PROBLEM.

Many groups that were for the scamnesty were upset they lost but others who were born here to legal parents and immigrant were pleased with the result. They are now in fear as Homeland Security is now going after them big time. Hopefully some get frightened enough to go back where they came from. Rumor has it the employees of ICE and Border Patrol were warned not to give the heads up to illegals where the raids will be. They were also told the consequences if they did so. I somewhat believe that those things were going on as 90% of immigration and Border Patrol are Hispanic. There have been many arrests of Hispanic employees in the past for doing illegal things to help their own people. Usually it means getting them social security numbers that they aren't entitled to, getting them greencards they aren't entitled to and other things. This also explains how Cubans are able to make land even though there were exercises with various law enforcement agencies in South Florida. It seems that those who are being smuggled on go fast boats hardly ever get confronted by the Coast Guard at sea but the poor ones on rafts do.

It's the people who led immigrants to believe they could come to this country illegally in the first place who are wrong - all the fathers and mothers and cousins and aunts and uncles and religious leaders and farmers and drug smugglers and coyotes and Latino activists and Latino organizations and employers and on and on and on. They were never needed here, they were never wanted here, and they do not belong in America illegally so don't tell us how to run our government!

If you think you can cross ANY southern border with impunity and disregard for US law you are mistaken. It is WE who will not forget!

I forgot to mention a recent example in the part about illegals getting warnings about ICE raids. Just before Valentine's Day ICE raided a flower wholesaler and caught only a couple illegals. I don't believe for one minute they would have executed a raid if they did not know for sure that there were numerous illegals working there.

I also heard that ICE is going after employers of illegals and will be given power to fine and take businesses away from those who are repeatedly hiring them.