By SARA CASTELLANOS
The Aurora Sentinel
April 23, 2010
AURORA | Immigration reform became a personal crusade for Sofia when her son dropped out of high school in 2008 because it was futile to graduate when there wasn’t a chance of getting into college without citizenship papers.
Sofia, who did not want to use her actual name because she is in the country illegally, has lived in Colorado since 1997 and has been trying to obtain status as a legal citizen — which would also naturalize her children — for eight years. But government officials told her she could be waiting for her papers until 2017.
It’s stories like Sofia’s that have fueled immigrant rights groups across Colorado to hold United States lawmakers to their lofty promises of instituting comprehensive immigration reform this year, despite the tumultuous legislative climate that has culminated after the passage of the contentious health care bill.
Colorado’s congressional Democrats say the passage of a comprehensive immigration reform proposal that was introduced last year is next to impossible if Republicans remain as stalwart as they’ve been. Meanwhile, Republican officials and anti-immigrant groups say the current political climate isn’t conducive to passing any sort of immigration reform because any committed support would be detrimental for candidates and incumbents in upcoming elections.
But perseverance will hopefully lead to triumph this year, says Sofia, who convinced her 19-year-old son to resume high school classes and graduate next year.
“I worked so hard to make him go back,” Sofia said. “I’m fighting for that because I say, maybe one day there is going to be a possibility to go to college. I keep praying every day and fighting.”
The fight has escalated among immigrants and interest groups since President Barack Obama took office and promised that immigration reform would be instituted during his first year in office.
So far, a bill that was introduced in the House late last year could be the first major step toward change for the 12 million immigrants in the United States — if it moves forward in Congress.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., was introduced in December 2009 and referred to a House committee on immigration and border security on March 1. It would suspend former President George W. Bush’s Operation Streamline program, which is a zero-tolerance border enforcement program that states every person who crosses the border illegally will face federal criminal charges instead of civil deportation proceedings.
It also prohibits the deportation of a person who immigrated to America while under the age of 12, establishes a federal grant program to assist lawful immigrants to become citizens, and beefs up border and port security while cracking down on businesses that employ illegal immigrants.
If a bill that contains a more efficient path to citizenship were to pass, it would greatly ameliorate the consternation that Aurora’s undocumented residents feel today, said Emily Parkey, community organizer for Rights for All People.
“People are living in a great deal of fear when dropping their kids off at school or going to work,” Parkey said. “They don’t know if they are going to make it back home.”
Local immigrants are fearful and unwilling to invest in the economy because of future uncertainties, she said.
“A lot of Aurora businesses in particular have been affected because there’s a great fear in the community right now, with increased raids and detentions,” Parkey said. “People don’t want to buy cars or homes, they’re afraid that they’re not going to be here.”
But Gutierrez’s bill still has a long way to go, and U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, says it won’t be moving forward fast if Republicans don’t cooperate. And, the 60-vote Senate supermajority rule won’t help the cause.
“If the Senate moves forward with legislation, then the House will move as well, but this is one where the Senate, because of their rules, are going to have a 60 vote supermajority and Republicans have been blocking everything,” Perlmutter said. “As a consequence, they may block any kind of (immigration) legislation moving forward.”
Perlmutter is a co-sponsor of the bill, along with other Colorado U.S. Representatives Diana DeGette D-Denver, Jared Polis, D-Boulder, and John Salazar, D-Manassa.
“We really have to tackle this issue and make sure we’ve secured our borders and our ports and really make it hard on people who are out to profit from trafficking in humans,” Perlmutter said. “We need to tackle this, and hopefully the Senate will attract several Republicans to do that instead of those guys trying to block it.”
With midterm elections on the horizon, lawmakers could be hesitant to vote on such a contentious issue for fear that their constituents wouldn’t re-elect them, said Nat Sillin, communications director for U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora.
“I don’t know if there’s the political will right now,” Sillin said. “As we get into the summertime, a lot of folks — in particularly tough races especially — won’t want to be on the record or involved in a heated immigration debate.”
Like Perlmutter, Sillin said the impetus for passing immigration reform would fall on the shoulders of the Senate.
“The schedule here in the House has been delayed, and in the Senate, things are slowing down which is emblematic of a typical election year,” he said. “The question really lies in the Senate and whether they’re willing to take it up.”
Sillin says Congress will also be preoccupied with choosing a replacement for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, which will “suck a lot of the air out of Washington.
“That’s really going to take up all the time and energy of the Senate,” he said.
Rumors that U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., could propose his own immigration reform bill have ballooned since his announcement at a Las Vegas rally April 10, where he said the nation’s immigration laws could change this year.
Reid’s statement was encouraging for Judith Marquez, an Aurora resident and community organizer for the nonprofit interest group Rights for All People, who attended the rally along with 200 other Coloradoans.
“It made me feel very hopeful hat we’re on the right track, and that our grassroots organizing has had an effect on our representatives,” Marquez said.
But five days later, Reid told reporters of the New York Times that immigration reform would have to wait, and it wouldn’t be on Washington’s immediate agenda.
That hasn’t swayed local politicians from calling on Reid to pass immigration reform. On Tuesday, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., sent a letter to Reid urging the Senate leader to advance reform.
For now, Gutierrez’s bill seems like the only beacon of hope for Colorado immigrant rights groups.
Under Gutierrez’s bill, the nation’s illegal immigrants would be required to fulfill myriad requirements including paying a $500 fine, proving they’d had been working in the U.S., learn English and undergoing criminal background checks in order to gain citizenship. The bill would also eliminate “touchback” provisions that were introduced by former legislative proposals, which require an illegal immigrant to return to their homeland first, before they are allowed to apply for citizenship.
Local groups that oppose mass immigration and amnesty for illegal immigrants have maintained that illegal immigration poses a threat to society because undocumented residents commit crimes, take jobs away from U.S. residents, and don’t pay taxes.
Fred Elbel, spokesman for the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform, said the group opposes any bill, including Gutierrez’s, that could lead to amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“Immigration reform is really a code for amnesty,” said Elbel, who lives in Lakewood. “I support reform that means a reduction of both illegal and legal immigration to sustainable levels. Right now mass immigration is driving our population ... and our country just can’t handle that level of growth.”
Dave Gorak, executive director of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration, says any chance of Democrats pushing immigration reform this year is unlikely.
“It would be political suicide for anybody who supports this,” said Gorak, who lives in La Valle, Wis.
He estimates about 7 million immigrants are in the U.S. workforce and employed in jobs that could have been for U.S. citizens.
“If the Obama administration is really serious about creating jobs, and if jobs is a top priority for him, then why isn’t he doing something to get these (immigrants) out of the workplace,” he said.
But Rights for All People estimates that immigration reform could add $1.5 trillion to the U.S. economy.
The organization will host an event with Sen. Bennet on April 25 in Aurora dedicated to educating people about the significance of immigration reform to small businesses.
Immigrant rights groups will continue to host events like RAP’s, and spearhead immigration reform campaigns before May 1 when the organizations are slated to host immigration rallies across the nation.
After all, immigrants can’t count on the promises of politicians, said Chandra Russo, a community organizer for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, which recently launched the Welcoming Colorado campaign to raise awareness about the importance of immigrants in our society.
“No one is at the place where they are just going to relax and trust a single statement at this point,” Russo said. “We’ve been working hard for months to let Congress and the President know we aren’t going away, and if they turn their backs on us, we might not be there when they need us to vote them back in.”
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