Groups keep working to aid aliens
Posted on Monday, July 9, 2007
Despite the Senate’s rejection last week of an immigration bill, local advocates say America’s laws still need to change and are looking ahead to what’s next.
The Arkansas Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, for one, continues to lobby Arkansas’ U. S. senators for support.
The coalition says current laws are unenforceable, weaken border security and threaten the economy. Its members also believe the laws overlook the hard work of immigrants and can break up families.
“It’s not going away,” Neil Sealy of ACORN (Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now ) said of the need for change in dealing with immigration.
Meanwhile, illegal aliens continue to come to and live in the United States.
“Nothing got accomplished because we still have 12 million [illegal aliens ] here,” said Charles Cervantes, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “They’re here. They’re not going to go anyplace. They’re not going to pack up and leave.
“ They’re going to chance it. It’s almost like a roulette game. They hope they’re not in the wrong place at the wrong time when ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement ] comes through.” Since the bill’s defeat, Cervantes said about five aliens in Arkansas have called him with their personal information so they can keep in touch or be reunited with their family if their mothers and fathers are deported.
Cervantes said the United States will continue to live with a broken system that he believes will see an increase in the number of illegal immigrants. Advocates and politicians have agreed that since the Senate bill has failed, changes aren’t likely to occur until 2009 or 2010, when a new president is in the White House.
But some groups contend the solution is not new laws but for current laws to be enforced.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national nonprofit organization, believes the Senate bill was rejected because of its basis of compromise.
“The essence of the bill was that foreign nationals who violated our immigration laws and American employers who hired them illegally needed to have their interests met in order for us to move forward with immigration enforcement,” the federation stated in a press release.
The group called for several steps, including sanctions on employers of illegal workers, secure means of identification and fully funding the border patrol. The laws and the means for following those steps already exist, according to the federation.
However, Mexican consul Andres Chao in Little Rock said Hispanic immigration needs to be addressed by both Mexico and the United States.
“If we don’t resolve this, we — Mexico — need to create 1 million jobs per year,” Chao said. If not, Mexico could find itself with a depleted working class, he and others believe.
Immigration woes are not limited to the United States, Chao said, as other countries, such as Great Britain, also have a large immigrant population. Regardless of the location, the drive is all the same, Chao said.
“Father of the family is trying to find a better way of life,” he said.
In Mexico, for example, it can take five weeks to earn the equivalent of a week’s salary in a manual labor job in the United States, he said.
But with attempts for change in immigration policy now slowing, groups in Arkansas plan to continue with their individual missions until the next move is made.
Since 2006, the Arkansas Coalition for Citizenship has offered classes to help legal residents apply for permanent citizenship, said Margarita Soloranzo, executive director of the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas.
While many of the coalition’s clients were saddened by the news of the failed immigration bill, the group continues to educate Hispanic women and their families so they can become more active in the community. That won’t stop, she said.
Legal residents can more easily qualify for education aid and work benefits, she said. There are an estimated 30, 000 legal immigrants in Arkansas, she said.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates there are 27, 000 illegal aliens in the state as well.
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