By Elaine Ayala
San Antontio Express-News
08/16/2009
When President Barack Obama announced a timetable last week that puts off comprehensive immigration reform until next year, some advocates and other observers weren't surprised, given the still-struggling economy and the massive health care and energy bills ahead of the issue.
But while supporters of both the president and immigration reform put faith in its new promise — which as a candidate Obama had promised in 2009 — some advocates are sounding more doubtful.
Some fear that “comprehensive” will be dropped from “immigration reform,” and that the weight of other initiatives will result in more piecemeal approaches to overhauling the nation's immigration laws, widely viewed as broken.
“We still feel it's one of the top three priorities,” said Margaret Pulles, spokeswoman for the San Antonio-based Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, or MATT.org.
“Come January, if we're not hearing something,” said Graciela Sanchez, executive director of the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, “we'll have to make a push.”
“Reform is a priority in the Latino community,” said San Antonian Rosa Rosales, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “I would strongly urge that Latino organizations push the issue that we need comprehensive immigration reform now.”
Obama “is not going to forget the immigrant community,” she added.
Advocates on the front lines of helping immigrant families torn apart by deportations aren't so sure, sounding more exasperated with a continued hard line from the Department of Homeland Security.
“I'm very concerned,” said Alejandro Siller, coordinator of Mexican American Catholic College's San Juan Diego Project, which provides services to immigrants and faith-based groups that assist them. “Raids continue because there is no solution.”
A comprehensive bill being drafted by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is likely to include border security, penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers and what MATT.org calls “a fair and realistic plan for integrating undocumented workers into a legal system of employment.”
What opponents call “amnesty,” supporters couch as “a pathway to citizenship” for the 11 million to 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Instead of harsh punishment or deportation, Archbishop José Gomez wrote in a column last week, immigrants should receive community service, or another punishment “that fits the crime.”
Immigrant advocates also want Congress to change immigration caps and visa limits they consider unreasonable.
Donna R. Gabaccia of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota said the limits have contributed “to a sense that immigration is out of control.”
That the same number of visas is extended to both Nigeria and Mexico, for example, is not realistic, the historian said. And congressional loopholes for refugees and relatives of immigrants compound the problem, she said.
“People say immigrants should get in the back of the line, but there is no line. There are no visas or almost no visas for unskilled and semiskilled workers to wait in,” Gabaccia said. “The diminishing small number of visas guarantees illegality.”
Members of San Antonio's congressional delegation who back reform sound doubtful of passage, too, especially given 2010 elections.
Obama has said he's willing to move forward if the votes are there, said Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. “It doesn't look like we have the votes, in all honesty.” He said Congress might instead address reform “partially.”
Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, agreed. However, he thinks the Senate will introduce a bill before year's end.
“One of the complications is that Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), one of our champions, is not on the Senate floor,” Gonzalez said.
Obama's recent comments from Guadalajara, Mexico, were encouraging, Gonzalez added, because they indicate reform is still on his agenda.
But the congressman added that if a comprehensive bill isn't passed, “We'll try to do it piecemeal.”
He cited the Dream Act, introduced in March, which would extend permanent residency to immigrant students who came to the United States as children and have graduated from high school.
Gonzalez said more border security funds would be approved regardless of an immigration bill, and “a temporary workers program of some sort” will be addressed.
“We have certain windows,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said. “Experience and history have told us if it's postponed to the following year, then you're talking about 2011.”
Even opponents of immigration reform say the Obama administration may just run out of time.
“These are all big initiatives he has taken on,” said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “There's a limit to how much you can get done.”
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