LatinaLista — Not even 24 hours after it was announced the Senate had passed their version of the immigration reform bill, critics were jockeying for place in front of television cameras to denounce it.
Now, you would think that the criticism would be from the organizations that advocate for immigrant rights but, not surprisingly, all the anger was coming from House Republicans who still can’t wrap their minds around what happens if you tell 12 million people they can’t stay here anymore.
(Source: CNN)
In light of the Senate’s action and their proposed bill where it’s stipulated that anyone who arrived here before January 1, 2007 will automatically receive a Z visa that gives them immediate work authorization, I wondered if there would be a stronger push for a moratorium on worksite raids.
Douglas Rivlin of the Immigration Forum answered my question.
In part, he replied in an email, The raids will continue until the community forces the Government to adopt a more sensible and humane immigration policy that includes wider legal channels for immigrants in the future, relief for people caught in endless backlogs, an earned citizenship program to reduce or eliminate the undocumented immigrant population, and, yes, enforcement of the new legal system in a fair and just manner.
Though most immigrant advocates don’t like the Senate’s bill in its entirety, they all agree that it is an important start and that without this bill the issue may not have ever reached the floor of Congress this year.
But yet again, as the House begins to tackle the issue, we should prepare ourselves for an ugly fight that will attempt to demonize and dehumanize the Latino undocumented immigrant.
It is a political tactic that was done before. This time, with new leadership in the House of Representatives and a savvier Latino community, those same critics will have a harder time of accomplishing it this next round.
We can only hope they want to do “field surveys” again.
