With Immigration Bill Stalled, Advocates Push Forward
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LOS ANGELES, June 13 As officials in Washington discussed ways to
revive an immigration bill stalled in the Senate, immigrant advocates
moved forward on Wednesday with a new round of lobbying that they hope
will lead illegal immigrants out of the shadows.
Two nationwide caravans supporting immigrant rights are on their way
to Washington, including members of a "Dreams Across America" campaign
that left Wednesday on a train here to tell their stories at several
stops and through a multimedia Web site. It is one of three "Dreams
Across America" trains carrying 100 immigrants through different parts
of the country.
The campaign is organized by many of the groups — including labor
unions and the Roman Catholic Church — that last year brought hundreds
of thousands of people into the streets in support of immigration
changes. The campaign is intended to counter concerns about border
security and amnesty for illegal immigrants that have dominated the
debate in Washington.
"We want to create a dialogue with the public," said Fermin Vasquez,
20, a college student from El Salvador who recently became a legal
resident. "We know there are a lot of misconceptions about what an
immigrant is and isn't. Anti-immigrant people ignore the civil wars
and disasters and economic conditions that cause people to immigrate."
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, attended the
send-off. He said there was a need to draw attention to recent public
opinion polls that have shown a majority of Americans in favor of
comprehensive changes to immigration law.
"Because a few have raised negative voices, strident voices, it is
easy to forget the majority of Americans are for immigration reform,"
he said.
The other caravan plans to deliver one million letters Thursday to a
group of senators in Washington from citizens and legal residents
supporting passage of the comprehensive bill.
But unlike the largely cohesive front lined up against the Senate
bill, there is some division among immigrant advocates about whether
the legislation is worth fighting for.
Some are pressing to get the bill approved by the Senate in hopes of
making changes when it goes before the House. Others denounce that
strategy and call for a process that would make it easier than the
bill envisions for large numbers of illegal immigrants in the United
States to get legal status.
"Nothing will be worse in terms of the millions of individuals and
families that will be criminalized in perpetuity by the proposed
Senate legislation," said lawyers for the Center for Human Rights and
Constitutional Law, an advocacy group, in a statement.
Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum,
one of the groups in a broad coalition backing the bill, said many
supporters had problems with aspects of the bill but supported the
measure as a first step after years of failure to get any overhaul.
That approach has left supporters of the bill in the awkward position
of at once holding their noses while beating the drums for it.
The "Dreams Across America" train reflects the changing tactics of
some supporters, deliberately shifting their energies away from
another round of demonstrations to lobby Congress. The cross-country
public relations campaign offered a softer note to the large, loud
demonstrations that some of the people behind the new move had backed
last year.
Behind the scenes, pro-immigration lobbyists are peppering legislators
with calls and meetings, and everyone is operating with a sense that
the next few weeks are critical.
The bill "is certainly not what we wanted," said Richard H. White,
president of the Arizona Interfaith Network, which promotes the
legalization of illegal immigrants. "But our point is, because we have
differences, that does not mean that should stop the debate. There is
just too much cost being borne inordinately by Arizona and other
border states."
But other advocates disagree, saying supporters of an overhaul have
given too much ground. The bill, they argue, would do little to
advance their goal of granting citizenship or legal status to all 12
million illegal immigrants and would not make it easier to unite
divided families.
Antonio Gonzalez, a veteran immigrants' rights advocate who leads a
coalition of groups opposing the bill, said it would create an
"apartheid system" of open doors for the affluent and skilled and
closed ones for less fortunate but much-needed low-skilled workers.
"It does not legalize 12 million undocumented people because there are
an infinite number of obstacles in the legalization program that
preclude 80 to 90 percent from making it through the system to
permanent residency," he said. "It does not solve future labor needs
because of built-in deficiencies like requiring temporary workers to
go back for a year after two years. Nobody is going to do that."
He said it was misguided to think the House was the body to soften
provisions so that illegal immigrants and their families could get
legal status quicker or easier.
"The anti-immigrant right is driving this process, and the House is
more susceptible to their pressure than the Senate," said Mr.
Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, an
immigration policy center here.
Such splits were reflected here in California, where Senator Dianne
Feinstein, a backer of the bill, voted to cut off debate while a
fellow Democrat, Senator Barbara Boxer, considered more liberal,
joined 11 other Democrats in voting not to.
As the presidential primary gets closer, senators will be less
inclined to make waves with an immigration bill, Mr. Sharry said,
noting the minefield of procedural tactics, horse-trading and
political posturing that can kill legislation.
"Immigration legislation in the Congress has the feel of an Indiana
Jones flick," Mr. Sharry said. "It is so unpredictable and there are
so many trapdoors and bad guys and slithering snakes and huge boulders
you don't see until they are on you. To get to the 'grand bargain' was
extremely time consuming, extremely painful and extremely difficult."
Still left in the lurch are millions of illegal immigrants. A group of
church leaders have begun a New Sanctuary Movement to house illegal
immigrants facing deportation in churches across the country. Law
enforcement officers generally do not enter church grounds to make
arrests unless lives are at stake.
Last Friday, Liliana, who refused to give her last name, took up
residence at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Long Beach, near Los
Angeles. She has three small children who were born in the United
States and are citizens, but she has been told she is ineligible for
legal status because she entered the country with a fraudulent birth
certificate from her native Mexico several years ago.
"We are not criminals or bad people," she said in a recent interview.
"We just want a way to work here and provide for our children."
