TRANSLATED FROM:
http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanc ... sortby=ASC

Chicago, March 17.- Community organizations of Americans of Mexican origin devised an immigration reform proposal which legalizes undocumented immigrants based on family unity and employment.

The proposal plans to legalize the people that have been displaced by the effect of the application of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The legalization would be offered to workers and their families that have resided in the United States for more than two years and who can document educationa and/or personal achievements and community service.

Besides, the applicants should be married, have economic responsibilities such as a mortgage or credit, their children must have good school performance or have a child in the armed forces or the National Guard.

The process to obtain permanent residence would have low quotas and would be given in a time limit of two years, while the request for citizenship would take five years.

The initiative is the result of an assembly called United Front for Immigrants, directed by Carlos Arango, in which 20 organizations of the Mexican community participated.

It is a proposal "that arises from the community, it warrants an agile legalization, with well defined procedures, with equality of opportunities for those who are inside the country and in waiting lists, and that defines a pathway to citizenship", said Arango this Tuesday in an interview.

The document proposes reforms so that all the immigrants be treated in "a more human way" so they can normalize their immigration status, he added.

It states that the issue of legal immigration is a labor issue and not about internal security, it also seeks the protection of families to facilitate the reunification of its members.

Besides, it proposes to increase the number of visas to countries of where the greater quantity of immigrants come from, especially to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens; to reduce the quotas according to the size of the family and to shorten waiting periods.

The proposal also establishes guest worker plan, assuring a human and secure treatment, as well as labor union protection.

Likewise it plans to avoid the repatriation of those who are less than 18 years of age, to change the laws that at present time criminalize the undocumented and to establish, instead of deportation, community service and other options for the persons under arrest.

According to the proposal, traffic infractions and driving without a license would be excluded of the records, but not for the continual detentions related to the consumption of alcohol.

Current deportation orders would be suspended for immigrants with tested moral quality and with five years of continuous residence, and that the international trade agreements that contribute to illegal immigration would be revised.

The proposa also establishes rules tegardomg the incursions carried out by ICE agents , prohibiting the massive and random detentions of immigrants in their places of work, as well as the retroactive use of immigration laws.

It establishes that the security of the border should only be overseen by the Border Patrol and not by the National Guard, and channels the funds destined to build the border wall to improvements in domestic infrastructure.

This country cannot be proclaimed as "lighthouse of" impartiality in the world" if it does not protect civil and constitutional law of all the people that reside in it, "even if they happen to be undocumented", maintained Arango.

He emphasized that as opposed to the initiatives for immigration reform presented in the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2007, this proposal focuses the issue on laborand not on national security, which eliminates the criminal label on the undocumented.

The proposal was delivered Monday to the democrat senator of Illinois, Roland Burris for its promotion in the Senate, and it will also be sent to senator Dick Durbin and it is expected to be supported by the Hipsanic Caucus, as well as within Hispanic communities of other states. (With information of Notimex/MVC)