Thread: Illegal Proponents Obviously Feeling Confindent

Immigrant groups want 'legalization for everyone'

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 30, 2007, 7:43 PM CST


An alliance of Chicago immigrant advocates called on Congress Tuesday to give undocumented immigrants legal status when the Democratic majority takes another look at immigration reform in February.

"The language in Washington, D.C., is different from the language here at the grass-roots level," said Carlos Arango, the executive director of Casa Aztlan, a cultural center for the Mexican community in Pilsen. "This is the agenda that comes from the community. It is not negotiable. We want legalization for everyone."

The United Front of Immigrants released a set of demands at a news conference Tuesday that included suspending construction of a fence along the border, establishing a path to citizenship for more immigrants and ending recent attempts by customs officials to intimidate immigrants.

In February, the Senate is expected to reconsider a bill it passed in May that proposed a three-tiered approach for illegal immigrants, requiring some to leave and permitting others to stay.

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is working on a bill in the House and has been in early discussions with Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) about addressing immigration reform.

Gutierrez "is committed to an earned legalization program that helps people already here to adjust their status," said Scott Frotman, the representative's press secretary. "The congressman believes the time for real comprehensive immigration reform is now. The current system is badly broken. It's hurting families, it's harming business, and it's hindering efforts to guard our homeland."

Chicago has been at the foreground of the national immigration debate after several marches last spring brought hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for the legalization of undocumented immigrants to downtown streets. There are 1.5 million Mexican immigrants residing in Illinois, according to figures from the 2000 U.S. Census.

Immigrant advocates have been trying to harness those numbers to support candidates backing an opportunity for illegal immigrants to earn legal status.

Since 2004, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has registered 42,057 people in the Chicago metropolitan area. The organization had more than 1,500 volunteers calling voters and knocking on doors on Election Day in November.

A more just immigration reform bill will test how much the Democrats value Latino voters that helped them get elected last year, Arango said.

The United Front alliance includes several groups that participated in the marches, including Casa Aztlan, the United Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Latino Organization of the Southwest and the International Coalition of Mexicans Abroad.

The guiding principles behind the group's demands are keeping families together and allowing immigrants to live and work in the U.S. without the fears of deportation and discrimination, organizers said.

The alliance plans on working with immigrant advocates in New York and California to pressure Congress, in addition to appealing directly to legislators.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... i-news-hed

"The language in Washington, D.C., is different from the language here at the grass-roots level," said Carlos Arango, the executive director of Casa Aztlan, a cultural center for the Mexican community in Pilsen. "This is the agenda that comes from the community. It is not negotiable. We want legalization for everyone."

The United Front of Immigrants released a set of demands at a news conference Tuesday that included suspending construction of a fence along the border, establishing a path to citizenship for more immigrants and ending recent attempts by customs officials to intimidate immigrants.

Here we go with the demands again, well tough s___t!!!!! I hope

As long as the damned Congress continues to let the tail wag the dog, we're going to keep seeing these sorts of minority demands.

It's a damned shame that politcal correctness has so gripped America's majority that we are afraid to form our own coalition and make demands from the strength of the majority.

This should get through with the rats in power. They will vote as a block and it will likely be some what worst then the one this spring. Makes me sick that the tradiors run the government.

"The language in Washington, D.C., is different from the language here at the grass-roots level," said Carlos Arango, the executive director of Casa Aztlan, a cultural center for the Mexican community in Pilsen. "This is the agenda that comes from the community. It is not negotiable. We want legalization for everyone."

Obviously by "everyone" he means rapist, murderers, thieves, child molesters, drunk drivers, etc. Have you ever heard of anything so ludicrous in your life?

Hold on Elvira - your friends are working overtime to gain citizenship for you and every criminal illegal immigrant in the country! No one will be spared - you'll all get citizenship! Kennedy, McCain, and Guiterrez have heard your cry from the "shadows" and will respond as expected.

These guys are doing us a favor.

The truth is that DC politicians only have one real choice and it is to stand with Americans and get these illegals out of here or chaos and decline for the US due to their actions.

There is only one suitable way out. Say no to amnesty!

The illegals will not be satisfied till they have all they want and then the nation discovers they want European and Black Americans GONE from the continent.

W

santa anna felt confident

These guys are doing us a favor.

You're probably right about that, William. When the Kennedy/McCain and Guiterrez bills hit the floors of Congress (House and Senate), I hope both bills are so liberal on legalization, benefits, rights, etc. and weak on enforcement that a majority vote will be virtually impossible to attain! I'm almost certain Kennedy, McCain, and Guiterrez can work up a couple bills that no sane congressperson would find acceptable and no amount of amendments would fix.

I've heard the words 'we demand' this week plenty and yet the more they demand the more it may backfire on them. Who do they think they are to 'demand?' What if we went to our employer and said 'I demand...?' Well, sometimes it's worked with unions but in everyday situations it doesn't work psychologically.