Issues of concern to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus & Hispanic lobby & advocacy groups

USA Immigration Debate 2006

Hispanics have already surpassed blacks as the largest minority group in the U.S.
If current trends continue, by 2050, Hispanics will make up 25 percent of the population.

Issues: America as a land of opportunity, border & homeland security, amnesty, temporary "guest" worker program, immigration policy reform, deportation, immigrants' rights & rights of working illegal alien community, Mexican response to tightened U.S. immigration laws, proposed crackdowns by communities, conservative anti-immigrant movements, racism, discrimination, scare politics, Mexican border fence, human trafficking, smuggling, offering permanent residence or citizenship, considering it a crime to help illegal immigrants, considering it a felony to be in US illegally, allowing healthcare (driver licenses, tuition-education grants)...

According to most estimates, about 11 million undocumented immigrants are now in the U.S., with about 56% coming from Mexico and 22% from other Latin American countries. Many Latino immigrants end up settling or working in California, Texas, and Arizona, although noticeable numbers now reside in the South, Midwest, Northeast, and Rocky Mountain states. Approximately two-thirds have been in the U.S. for 10 years or fewer. Recent statistics from the Pew Hispanic Research Center indicate that undocumented immigrants account for about 4.9% of the civilian labor force, or 7.2 million workers out of a total U.S. labor force of 148 million.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus www.chci.org
Latino Civil Rights & Advocacy Organization- National Council of La Raza www.nclr.org
Pew Hispanic Center: http://pewhispanic.org
Center for Immigration Studies: http://www.cis.org
American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org

Punish Illegal Immigrants? Welcome Them as Future Citizens? Congress Debates Immigration

Immigration was a major subject as President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox met this week.  They were in Cancun, Mexico, joined by the new prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper.  The North American leaders also discussed trade and other issues during their two days of meetings.

The two presidents both support the idea of a guest worker program that would not punish illegal immigrants now in the United States.  But Mister Bush's Republican Party is divided on issues of immigration reform.

The Pew Hispanic Center says fifty-six percent of illegal immigrants in the United States are from Mexico.  It estimates that the United States has eleven million to twelve million illegal immigrants.  Some other estimates put the number higher.

In Washington, a vote this week cleared the way for the full Senate to debate an immigration bill.  The Judiciary Committee approved legislation that would make it possible for some illegal immigrants to become American citizens. 

They would have to prove they have jobs and are not wanted for crimes.  They would also have to learn English and pay any tax debts.

The proposal would also expand guest worker programs to let four hundred thousand people into the country each year.  After six years they could ask for permission to stay permanently.

The Senate bill conflicts with legislation approved by the House of Representatives in December.  Under the House version, illegal immigrants and anyone who helps them could face criminal charges. 

In the past week, many thousands of Latinos and others marched in Los Angeles and other cities to protest that legislation.  Students walked out of high school classes to join the protests.

Demonstrators in Los Angeles gather to protest federal legislation that would build more walls along the U.S. - Mexico border and make helping illegal immigrants a crime

 

Anger at the House bill could hurt efforts to get more Latinos to vote Republican in congressional elections this November.  The party controls both houses of Congress.

Some lawmakers want to discuss only border enforcement and security.  They oppose legislation that would permit illegal immigrants to become citizens.  They say it is not fair to immigrants who obeyed the law.

Others support changing the immigration laws as a way to improve the lives of those living in the country illegally now.  Supporters say the economy depends on them.  They say these workers do jobs that Americans refuse to do. 

Opponents might not dispute that.  But they say there is currently not enough enforcement of laws against employing illegal immigrants in jobs that Americans will do.  The building trades are often used as an example.

Last Monday, President Bush spoke at a ceremony for new citizens.  He expressed support for guest worker programs for economic reasons.  But he also said he will not support any plan that pardons all of those who have been working in the United States illegally.

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach.
I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 01 April 2006

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Deep Rifts in US Senate Over Immigration
By Michael Bowman
Washington 02 April 2006 www.voanews.com

U.S. senators are voicing sharp divisions on what should become of millions of illegal immigrants, as they consider a variety of proposals to reform America's immigration system. Meanwhile, immigrant-rights rallies continue, with a march in New York City.

In what has emerged as a fierce and polarizing immigration debate, there is one idea that senators agree on: that the United States must have greater control over its borders, through which hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens pass every year. But there is little agreement on how to accomplish that goal, or how to treat the more than 11 million undocumented aliens estimated to be living in the United States.

Speaking on ABC's This Week program, Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama said he favors a three-step approach.

"Improving border security, tightening employer sanctions [penalties for those who hire illegal workers]. The second provision is providing a pathway to citizenship. We have 11 to 12 million undocumented workers in the country. We want to regularize their lives. The third component is a guest worker program," said Obama.

Also appearing on This Week, Republican George Allen of Virginia said there must be no reward for breaking U.S. laws.

"There is a consensus in America that we need to secure our borders," commented Allen. "If we have a reward of illegal behavior, all we will get is more illegal behavior. There are many people who have come into this country legally."

Backers of the citizenship path counter that illegal aliens would have to pay fines and submit to background checks, among other steps, in order to be considered for eventual citizenship.

Senator Obama says it is the only practical option available.

"The notion that somehow these 12 million people are going to get on a bus and go back across the border just is not realistic," he added.

But Senator Allen disagrees, arguing that, if labor laws prohibiting the employment of undocumented workers were rigorously enforced, illegal aliens would return to their native lands on their own.

"The main point is: enforce the law. Right now, it is illegal to hire those who are [here] illegally. And if there is a workable, efficient, practical way of hiring legal workers in this country, employers will do that. Then, those who are here illegally will see that they cannot find work in this country, and they are going to have to leave," he argued.

Yet U.S. business groups warn of dire consequences for the U.S. economy, if the supply of inexpensive labor from abroad were to disappear.

Immigrant-rights groups point out that many illegal aliens have U.S.-born children, who are American citizens, and that forcing the parents to leave the country would tear families apart.

Protesters pray during the The Great Walk in Solidarity With Immigrants in New York, April 1, 2006,

A bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives would designate illegal aliens as felons, and mandate constructing more than 1,000 kilometers of new fence along the U.S. - Mexico border. What action the Senate may take is unclear, but many immigrants and immigrant-rights supporters have vociferously protested the House legislation as an abdication of America's history as a welcoming nation.

 

Sunday, demonstrators marched across New York's Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. Dozens of other demonstrations have been held across the country in recent weeks.

 

Illegal Immigration in a Nation of Immigrants
By Peter Fedynsky 28 March 2006
Washington, D.C. www.voa.com

The United States, a nation of immigrants, is currently engaged in a heated debate about illegal immigration. According to government estimates, there are eight to ten million illegal immigrants in the United States and another half million cross the border each year.  The immigration debate involves a range of proposals, from amnesty to deportation.

More than 500,000 people protested in Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding that Congress abandon measures passed in the House of Representatives that would add 1100 kilometers of fence along America's 3200-kilometer border with Mexico, and declare illegal immigrants and organizations that help them -- to be felons.  Demonstrations were held in other U.S. cities, including Dallas, Phoenix, Milwaukee, and Columbus, Ohio.

Among the protesters was Mariana, an illegal immigrant who arrived from Mexico City 15 years ago.  "I've been here most of my life.  My kids were born here," she said.

Mariana would be a criminal, if the House bill becomes law.

President Bush's proposal is less punitive. He wants to secure the border, shut down document counterfeiting rings, and stop smugglers who traffic in human beings. He is also seeking to create a guest worker program that would provide temporary employment without a guarantee of permanent residence or citizenship.

 

President Bush speaks at a immigration naturalization ceremony at the Daughters of the American Revolution administration building in Washington Monday, March 27, 2006

"This program would provide a legal way to match willing foreign workers with willing American employers to fill the jobs that Americans are unwilling to do,” said Mr. Bush. “Workers should be able to register for legal status on a temporary basis."

 

But, Dale McGlothlin, an immigration reform activist, says the President's plan would drive down wages for all Americans. "It doesn't matter how hard you work or how much you want to work. Unless you work for less money, you are not going to have a job in the future," said the chief operating officer of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The president's own Republican Party is split on immigration between business interests who want a supply of cheap workers and those who say illegal immigrants strain the American economy, schools, health care, and culture.  And Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, a Republican, says illegal immigrants violate the rule of law.

"The crime they have committed is coming into this country without our permission.  The penalty that is supposed to be applied to that, under the law that we have today is deportation."

But Mariana says deportation would destroy her family. "The most important thing is to keep our families together."

Immigration reform advocates protested on Monday at the U.S. Capitol, where the Senate is exploring more lenient alternatives, including amnesty, for resident illegals.  President Bush, however, is opposed to amnesty, saying it would encourage more illegal immigration.

The Senate has scheduled two weeks for the immigration debate.

Discuss the influence of Hispanic Americans

Overview: What is the definition of the term "Hispanic"? Use this article and lesson plan to have students identify organizations that support Hispanic Americans, and to determine legislative successes of the Hispanic rights movement. Challenge students to formulate opinions on how organizations play a role in passing legislation to benefit Hispanic Americans.

Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Identify organizations that support Hispanic Americans.
• Describe the main legislative successes of the Hispanic rights movement.

Students should understand and use complex cultural concepts such as adaptation, assimilation, acculturation, diffusion, and dissonance drawn from anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines to explain how culture and cultural systems function.

Students must understand the paradigms and traditions that undergird social and political institutions. They should be provided opportunities to examine, use, and add to the body of knowledge related to the behavioral sciences and social theory as it relates to the ways people and groups organize themselves around common needs, beliefs, and interests.

Procedure
1.Have students read the CNNfyi.com article and ask the following:

• Why is the term "Hispanic" difficult to define? What countries do Hispanic Americans come from? Why do you think different groups of Hispanics use different names to describe themselves? How has the U.S. Census changed since 1980 with regards to Hispanics? Do you think the changes were necessary? Why or why not?
• Who is Cecilia Munoz? According to Munoz, why are Hispanics becoming the largest minority in the U.S.? What does the use of the term "minority" imply to you? Based on the information in the story, do you think Hispanic Americans should be referred to as a minority group? Discuss.

2. Refer students to the first Web site below to determine the percentage of the American population that claimed Hispanic origin in 1980 and in 1990. Have students determine whether the Hispanic population is rising or declining in proportion to the population.

3. Cecilia Munoz states, "The American dream is very vivid to us, and for those of us who are immigrants or their descendants, we are engaged in making that a reality." How would you define the term, "American dream"? Why do you think she states that the American dream is more vivid to immigrants? Explain.

4. Have students identify laws that were passed in an effort to guarantee equal rights for Hispanic Americans. These laws include the 1968 Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Voting Rights act of 1975. Then ask: What changes were implemented as a result of these laws? Have these laws improved the lives of Hispanic Americans? Give examples to support your opinions.

5. Ask students: What is bilingual education? Point out to students that some people have argued that English-only policies reflect a bias against minority groups, especially Hispanic Americans. Analyze this argument with respect to bilingual education. Have students write position papers on whether or not they support bilingual education. Have students share their papers with the class and discuss.

6. Inform students that Hispanic Americans have a number of organizations that work for their interests. They include: the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and The League of United Latin American Citizens. Have students conduct research to create a list of these organizations. Then, divide students into small groups and instruct each group to investigate ones of f the organizations listed. Have groups present their findings to the class. Then ask: Why are these organizations important to Hispanic Americans?

Assessment
Have students write essays identifying how organizations discussed in class play a role in passing legislation to benefit Hispanic Americans.

Challenge
Students can examine the history of immigration in the United States. Divide the class into small groups, and have each group select one period in U.S. history to examine. Have each group research immigration data pertaining to its era, including the origins of those who immigrated to the United States. Have each group express its information in visual form, such as a chart or graph. After groups present their data, discuss the changes that have occurred in immigration patterns and responses to these patterns by native born citizens.

Extension
Instruct students to write essays that explore the following question: How have Hispanic immigrants changed American culture? Have students share their essays and discuss how Hispanic immigrants have been influential in their own community. What are some of the societal benefits and drawbacks associated with immigration?

• Is the 2000 U.S. Census correct?
March 13, 2001
• Spanish Translation of this Discussion/Activity
• Hispanic Population
• USINS INS Internet Home Page
• ACLU and Immigrant Rights
• IOM / OIM International Organization for Migration / Organisation internationale pour les migrations / Organización internacional para las migraciones

CNNfyi.com article:  Trying to categorize Americans of Spanish origin can be confusing.

This growing, diverse minority group includes people of Mexican descent, Spanish heritage, Cuban parentage, Puerto Rican and Costa Rican ancestry, among many others.

"There isn't a perfect definition of our people," said Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a nonprofit civil rights organization for Hispanic people.

In fact, Hispanic people can't even agree on a term that best encompasses the entire minority group, she said in a phone interview from her office in Washington.

"In California, people prefer 'Latino,' but in the Southwest they prefer 'Hispanic.' Some people in the Mexican-American community like the term 'Chicano' to describe themselves," she explained.

Even the latest census, which reports the Latino population has increased by nearly 60 percent in the last 10 years, struggles to find an adequate term.

When filling out the 2000 census, Hispanics could choose either "Mexican," "Puerto Rican," "Cuban" or "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino."

If a census-taker marked the latter category, additional space was provided to specify an origin, such as Costa Rican, Colombian or Panamanian.

Vivid American dream

"The first census that tried to count us was only in 1980," said Muñoz. Before that year the census only asked the general question, "Do you have a Spanish surname?", she said.

"Suddenly everyone is noticing we are the largest minority, but it didn't happen overnight," she added.

She attributes half of the population swell to immigration and half to a growing birth rate.

While Latinos used to be concentrated in the five biggest states, the latest census shows growth in places like the South, where unprecedented economic growth lured workers.

"Hopefully our growth will improve minority relations. We are very eager to share our history, but we do suffer from the misconception that we just got here," Muñoz said.

"We have an extraordinary amount of diversity in this community, but on key concerns we tend to feel the same," said Muñoz.

Policies about immigration and English-only legislation tend to polarize the Hispanic minority," she said.

"It feels personal ... like it is a knee-jerk reaction to our presence in our own country. The American dream is very vivid to us, and for those of us who are immigrants, or their descendants, we are engaged in making that dream a reality," said Muñoz.

Quick facts from the 2000 census

More than 60 percent of Puerto-Ricans live in the Northeast.
 

 

The growing power of the Hispanic vote

October 3, 2001

CNN) -- The race for mayor in Houston, Texas, provides a unique look into the diversity of the Hispanic vote in the United States.

Among the three top contenders is Councilman Orlando Sanchez, who hopes to become Houston's first Hispanic mayor.

On the surface, at least, it would seem he has a good shot, since the city's Hispanic population has blossomed over the last 10 years to nearly 750,000 -- the largest ethnic group in the city.

But the politics isn't that simple.

Sanchez is a Republican-leaning Cuban-American; Democratic-leaning Mexican-Americans dominate the city's Hispanics.

The non-partisan election November 6 may well indicate where Latinos' strongest loyalties lie: with a name or with a political party.

Sanchez is counting on the former. Throughout the campaign he's walked the streets of Latino neighborhoods, introducing himself to potential voters - often in Spanish.

As a Cuban-American immigrant, he said, he has a lot in common with Mexican-Americans. "My family has gone through the same struggles that they have gone through," he said. "I know the difficulties. These people understand that I understand." At least one voter seems convinced. Caroline Ponce, who is of Mexican heritage and a self-described life-long Democrat, counts herself in Sanchez's corner, political differences notwithstanding.

"I would like for him to be in office, being that he is Hispanic," said Ponce.

She didn't change her mind, even when told Sanchez is a Cuban-American:

"It doesn't make any difference," she said.

Indeed, a poll conducted by the University of Houston Center for Public Policy at Rice University, and published in the Houston Chronicle in late September, shows Sanchez is holding his own against incumbent Mayor Lee Brown. When potential voters were asked whom they would vote for if there were a runoff election between the two candidates, respondents were nearly split down the middle.

More than 38 percent of the voters polled said they would pick Brown, but Sanchez was close on his heels with almost 36 percent support. More than 27 percent polled said they didn't know which candidate would get their vote on Election Day.

Even if Sanchez is successful in his bid to win over the Hispanic community, he faces an uphill battle.

Get out the vote

First, Hispanics turn out at the polls at a lower rate than any other ethnic group in the city. While they make up about 37 percent of the city's population, they comprised only about 9 percent of the voters in the last mayoral election, according to University of Houston political science professor Richard Murray.

"They are working extremely long hours often," Murray said. "They really don't have much time for politics in this culture. You can't win by mobilizing Hispanics in Houston yet, but they are, year by year, becoming a more significant voting block in this city." Sanchez is up against other obstacles as well. He faces two formidable and better-financed candidates: incumbent Brown and fellow Councilman Chris Bell.

Brown, a former New York City police commissioner and drug policy chief in the Clinton administration, is Houston's first African-American mayor.

"A Hispanic candidate like Sanchez has to work much harder than Lee Brown does," said Murray. "Lee Brown will have 97 percent of the Black voters behind him. He just has to turn them out."

If nothing else, Sanchez's candidacy has Brown on the defensive. The incumbent is quick to point out his administration set up a Hispanic advisory committee that he meets with on a daily basis. One of his closest political consultants is Mark Campos, a second-generation Mexican American, the mayor frequently notes.

"This mayor has done a lot for our community, and for us to turn our back on him is just not in the character of Hispanic leaders of Houston, Texas," said Campos.

Brown also harshly criticizes Sanchez for failing to support a variety of social programs, including affirmative action.

"For someone to vote against it they can't really represent a very important segment of our community," said Brown.

Sanchez responds that he's not against the concept of affirmative action. Instead, he opposes Houston's version of it.

"What I have said is that this city's current ordinance is unenforceable. They know that. We know that. And we're asking the taxpayers to pay for a program that cannot be enforced in a court of law," said Sanchez.

When campaigning, Sanchez prefers to talk about his promises to do something about nagging sewer problems and downtown streets that seem to be in a perpetual state of repair.

Asked if it's time Houston had a Hispanic mayor, Sanchez said, "I think it's time Houston (has) a mayor that takes care of the issues. And if that's a Hispanic, so be it."

Sanchez's formula for victory includes increasing Hispanic voter turnout and convincing enough conservative white voters that Bell, the only Anglo among the three leading candidates, is too liberal. Analysts say Sanchez is also calculating that should no single candidate get more than 50 percent of the vote in November, he could somehow win in a runoff.

"There's a real chance, it's not the most likely chance, but there's a real possibility that that's the way the race could play out," said Murray, the political scientist.

Whether Sanchez can pull off an upset won't be determined for a month or so. Even if he can't, he said his candidacy itself part of a larger victory for Hispanics all over the United States.

"We're just part of the fabric that is America. I see many cities across the nation now putting up Hispanic candidates, some winning, some not," he said. "But the fact of the matter is, the Hispanic community is going to participate and is going to make a contribution to the political process in this country."

U.S. must advance assimilation of legal immigrants

By Victor Davis Hanson March 30, 2006 www.mercurynews.com

Hypocrisy and paradoxes abound when it comes to illegal immigration.

Even the fiercest critics of illegal immigrants in the American Southwest never seem to check first the legal status of those who fix their roofs, mow their lawns or wash their dishes.

This past week, thousands of Latino demonstrators, fearful of strict new immigration laws, chanted ``Mexico'' and for some reason waved the flag of the country they fled from and most certainly do not want to return to.

Increasingly, Latin American governments have elected vocal anti-American politicians -- even as they count on their citizens leaving for the United States in record numbers.

The Mexican government seeks to entice wealthy retired Americans to build homes south of the U.S. border, even as it exports its own homeless to this country. What a cynical mindset: ``You take our Mexican poor, we'll take your American rich.''

Opponents of illegal immigration lament the skyrocketing costs of incarcerating thousands of illegal immigrants, and providing health benefits to many others. They ignore that such public-entitlement costs are partially offset by the private subsidy that the cheap labor amounts to.

On the other hand, supporters of the status quo tend only to cite statistics showing how illegal immigrants prop up the American economy -- as if workers who have little education, less English and no legal status will not get ill, hurt or in trouble.

Illegal immigration is so embedded in issues of history, exploitation, race, class and money that the mere discussion of it has a way of turning surreal.

So we talk of a guest-worker program as if the million willing Mexicans a year who won't qualify for it will smile and stay home. And, even for those who do qualify, a guest-worker program is a bad idea, for it perpetuates the notion of ``good enough to work, not good enough to stay.'' We should evolve from, not institutionalize, the two-tier system of ``them and us.''

We also talk of deportation as if it were feasible to send back 11 million people to Mexico in the largest population movement since the British partition of India.

And we don't talk of the greatest collective violation of American immigration laws in our history.

But there is still a solution to the immigration problem: It involves supporting any practice that leads to the assimilation of legal Mexican immigrants into the American mainstream -- and opposing everything that does not.

Employers and La Raza activists who thrive on the current non-system might not like that approach, but it is the only way to avoid the gathering political and cultural storm.

As we've seen from second- and third-generation legal immigrants, when a person from Mexico comes to the United States with legal documentation, learns English and regards an unskilled job as the start, not the end, of a career, success most often follows.

And when immigrants, of all nationalities, find themselves surrounded by others from all over the world, they generally accept English as our vital bond and see that a common culture, not race, is what matters.

Second, numbers are important. The United States can assimilate hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, as it does with other immigrant groups, who come legally and are integrated throughout the nation in multiethnic neighborhoods. But it cannot assimilate quickly millions of abject poor who live in apartheid communities. There the joy of reaching the United States is replaced by the bitterness of becoming part of its collective underclass.

Third, immigrants can survive one strike against them, maybe two -- but not three. A Mexican citizen who is here illegally might do well with fluent English and a high-school diploma. But when one is illegal, not fluent in English and without education -- and immersed with millions who share such disadvantages -- then we witness the sort of raw emotion now on display in Congress and on our streets.

So, given these realities, we should allow those illegal immigrants who have been living and working here for at least five years to start their citizenship process. But we should insist this be a one-time exemption rather than yet another periodic amnesty that encourages others to break the law and unfairly cut ahead in the immigration line.

Meanwhile, border enforcement, employer sanctions, walls and more officers to prevent illegal immigration will work, but only if we allow Mexico a generous quota of legal immigrants.

The real immigration debate is about turning legal arrivals into citizens. But we cannot do that until we work with those already here -- and ensure that others in the future come legally and in measured numbers and so don't repeat the shared mistakes of our past.

People power wins hope for US illegal immigrants

A US immigration reform bill that would allow 12 million illegal immigrants to become citizens eventually and would create a guest worker program for up to 400,000 low-skilled immigrants each year has won the approval of a Senate panel.

The decision of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday to back the controversial bill 12-6 came as hundreds of thousands of immigration advocates marched nationwide, protesting against a House of Representatives policy to get tough on illegal immigration.

The vote cleared the first major hurdle to the most sweeping changes to immigration laws in two decades, although significant obstacles remain before any measure becomes law.

Its supporters credited the huge public rallies with persuading senators that a comprehensive approach to immigration is in order. The stage has now been set for an election-year battle between the Senate and the House.

The Democrat senator whose proposals formed the basis of the committee's final bill, Edward Kennedy, said: "Americans wanted fairness, and they got it this evening. The demonstrations at the grassroots had a powerful impact. This was a nation-shaking event."

Under the measure, the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants would be able to apply for citizenship after six more years of residency if they hold stable jobs, pay back taxes and fines, maintain clean criminal records and learn English.

The bill would nearly double the number of border patrol agents in the next five years. It would authorise 400,000 new work visas for foreigners living in the US to work in jobs that employers say Americans don't want. The guest worker program would allow immigrants to work legally in the US for up to six years and apply for citizenship in their fourth year.

The guest worker program has been pushed by the President, George Bush, who warned on Monday against fear-mongering on the divisive issue.

"No one should play on people's fears or try to pit neighbours against each other," Mr Bush said. "No one should pretend that immigrants are a threat to American identity, because immigrants have shaped America's identity."

The vote surprised many observers who expected the Republican-controlled committee to approve a bill that would focus primarily on enforcing the nation's borders. Broad legislation is always difficult in an election year, and many across the country want fewer immigrants in the US, believing that immigrants have been taking jobs from Americans.

In any event, a bruising battle on the Senate floor is expected this week. Even if the Senate approves the bill, any measure that appears to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants faces fierce opposition in the House, which in December passed a bill that would erect a fence along the Mexican border and make it a crime to provide social services to undocumented immigrants.

The Boston Globe; Cox Newspapers

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Republican Split on Immigration Reflects Nation's Struggle

By RACHEL L. SWARNS The New York Times

The United States today has more than 33 million foreign-born residents, the greatest number than at any time in the past century.
 

WASHINGTON, March 28 — It is almost as if they are looking at two different Americas.

The Senate Republicans who voted on Monday to legalize the nation's illegal immigrants look at the waves of immigration reshaping this country and see a powerful work force, millions of potential voters and future Americans.

The House Republicans who backed tough border security legislation in December look at the same group of people and see a flood of invaders and lawbreakers who threaten national security and American jobs and culture.

But both wings of the deeply divided Republican Party are responding to the same phenomenon: the demographic shift driven by immigration in recent decades, a wave that is quietly transforming small towns and cities across the country and underscoring pressures on many parts of the economy.

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants, but today the country has more than 33 million foreign-born residents, the largest number since the Census started keeping such statistics in 1850. In 2003, foreign-born residents made up 11.7 percent of the population, the highest percentage since 1910. And over the past 16 years, the newcomers, many of them illegal, have poured into places in the South and Midwest that have not seen sizeable numbers of new immigrants in generations.

The question of how to cope with the 11 million illegal immigrants believed to be living here — whether to integrate them, ignore them or try to send them home somehow — is a question gripping many ordinary citizens, religious leaders, state legislators and policy makers in the White House. And in their bitter, fractious debate, Republicans in Congress are reflecting what some describe as the nation's struggle to define itself and, to some degree, politically align itself, during a period of social change.

The Senate Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who emerged victorious on Monday with help from Democrats argue that those illegal immigrants who work, pay taxes and learn English should be fully incorporated into American society as citizens. The House Republicans who passed a far different bill in December are pushing to criminalize their presence in the United States. (The full Senate is expected to vote on immigration legislation next week. Any bill that passes the Senate will have to be reconciled with the House legislation.)

As the party struggles to reconcile these competing visions, frustrations over the stalemate are spilling onto the airwaves and into the streets as some conservatives on talk radio call for a wall to be built along the Mexican border and tens of thousands immigrants and their supporters march in favor of citizenship.

"Right now, we're seeing to some extent the political response to the demography," said Roberto Suro, executive director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. "And even though the legislative proposals are seemingly technical and narrow, they touch these nerves about how we think of ourselves as a people."

"You end up, after a point, trying to balance our fundamental traditions, the need for order, law and security with a need for openness," he said. "Immigration policy, writ large, has always been partly a matter of national identity. It becomes a values-laden debate. Congress has a hard time with it."

That difficulty reflects, in part, the swiftness and the enormousness of the demographic shift.

In 1970, there were 9.6 million foreign-born residents in the country, census data show. By 1980, that figure had surged to 14.1 million. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of foreign-born residents jumped to 31.1 million from 19.8 million.

Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, who voted for the legalization of illegal immigrants on Monday, says he has seen and felt the shift in his own state.

"Huge increase," he said of the number of new immigrants. "It's a big issue, and it's one where communities that have adapted to it are more accepting and others are more questioning about the scale of what's taking place."

But when he wrestled with the issue, Mr. Brownback decided that he could not join the ranks of those who wanted simply to push out illegal immigrants. "This is also about the hallmark of a compassionate society, what you do with the widows, the orphans and the foreigners among you," he said.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, echoed those thoughts in his defense of the legalization program, which would ultimately grant immigrants citizenship.

"Where is home?" Mr. Graham asked his colleagues Monday. "Their home is where they've raised their children. Their home is where they've lived their married lives."

"Whatever we do," he added, "we have to recognize that for several generations people have made America their home."

But to Representative Tom Tancredo, the Colorado Republican who helped spearhead the border security bill in the House, illegal immigrants are far from welcome or essential to this country.

He was not moved when he saw the tens of thousands of immigrants, some illegal, and their supporters rallying against his bill. He said he was outraged that people he viewed as lawbreakers felt comfortable enough to stand without fear in front of the television cameras.

"For years, the government has turned a blind eye to illegal immigrants who break into this country," Mr. Tancredo said. "It isn't any wonder that illegal aliens now act as if they are entitled to the rights and privileges of citizenship."

Mr. Tancredo's view of the illegal immigrant as an unwanted outsider, an encroacher, is far from uncommon.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has reported a surge in recent years in legislation intended to crack down on illegal immigrants. As of Feb. 28, state legislators in 42 states had introduced 368 bills related to immigration or immigrants, and many of those bills were intended to limit or restrict illegal immigrants.

But some Republicans are warning now that tough anti-immigrant legislation may fuel a backlash and threaten the party's hard-won gains with Hispanics, whose numbers have surged in recent years.

Foreign-born Hispanics voted for President Bush in 2004 at a 40 percent greater rate than Hispanics born in the United States. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a strategist close to the White House, warned that Republicans could squander what the party had gained if lawmakers did not embrace a more welcoming vision of America.

"There is a danger that if the face of the Republican Party is Tancredo that we could be weaker with Hispanics for generations," Mr. Norquist said. "If the face of the Republican Party is George Bush or Ronald Reagan, we win. This is up for grabs."

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Washington's anti-immigration policy: How tough is too tough?

Latin-American news media seemed awestruck by the huge protests that took place in Los Angeles, Chicago and other U.S. cities last weekend, as demonstrators took to the streets to express opposition to the Republicans' proposed new anti-immigration law.

Mexico, it appears, would be most directly affected by the new law. With only a few months remaining in office before federal elections take place in early July, center-right Mexican President Vicente Fox has achieved nothing significant regarding immigration during his six-year term. His administration seemed pleased that yesterday's revision by the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee of the proposed new law eliminated some of its harshest provisions - like criminalizing the 11 million illegal immigrants who are already in the United States. Still, the mood in Mexico remains one of wait-and-see. Will the full Senate approve the committee's revamped version of the bill, which also provides for a guest-worker program for immigrants?

Some 500,000 protesters took part in last Saturday's demonstration, in Los Angeles, against the proposed anti-immigration law

From news coverage in Latin America of the controversial immigration issue:

» The proposed new law, known as the Sensenbrenner Bill, is named after its sponsor, Republican Representative James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the heir to the Kotex fortune. Ecuador's El Comercio noted that, as it is written, for illegal immigrants, his proposal "is the most dreaded of all the post-9/11 laws" that have emerged in the U.S. Congress. In its unwelcoming severity, the paper pointed out, it marks a distinct "before and after point in the history of this country of immigrants." The paper quoted Eduardo Giraldo, the head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Queens, New York, who said: "In 20 years, we Latinos are going to number some 150 million [in the U.S.] and we'll have economic and political weight...." He called the Bush administration's anti-immigrant fervor "a crusade against us." El Comercio noted that, although Bush and the Catholic church have been strong allies in their campaign against abortion and so-called gay marriage, the church is opposed to the criminalizing of illegal immigrants.

» Mexican President Fox called Bush late last week to discuss immigration and to express his hope that U.S. law-makers would act in a "just and humanitarian" way in addressing the politically hot issue. (EFE/El Nuevo Diario, Nicaragua) Analyzing that high-level, mostly-for-show communication, Carlos Gutiérrez, a Mexican expert in Mexico-U.S. relations, said he doubted the two leaders' phone chat would result in "any concrete announcement about immigration reform that Mexico [would] want," and that he believed Bush had merely used the occasion to press his "obsession about improving security along the [U.S.-Mexico] border."

Mexicans make their way north, toward the Mexico-U.S. border

» Yesterday, a conference on international immigration opened in Mexico City. (La Jornada) Its sponsors are the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. At the gathering, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez noted that discussions of immigration-related concerns should not focus exclusively on the security theme. Instead, he stressed that they should take into consideration the economic, cultural and ethical aspects of the immigrant's experience, as well as the human rights of immigrants. (Notimex/La Crónica de Hoy) At the conference, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, speaking for the Vatican, noted that immigration could - or should - be regarded as more of a "resource" than an "obstacle to development." The papal representative argued that "immigration laws must make a distinction between the legal order and the moral order." Calling for laws that are "just," the Catholic official noted that "what is legal is not always just...." (Notimex/Milenio)

» Mexico's Milenio reports that, in response to efforts by the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee to lessen the severity of the Sensenbrenner Bill, the