more on immigration (interview with nativo lopez):
This is a false premise from the start, because this legislation specifically states that the enforcement provisions come first--the government must certify that such measures are successful in preventing undocumented migration before any legalization is triggered. Congressman Gutiérrez made strategic concessions related to enforcement, penalties against employers, invasive government intervention in the workplace, codified cooperation between local police and immigration authorities and others to obtain in exchange a very tortuous, expensive and difficult-to-qualify-for legalization program. In other words, it is a bad framework to start legislative negotiations. The Republicans will fight any attempt to make them give back the political terrain that Gutiérrez ceded legislatively. A terribly bad chess move on his part.
(...) The Gutiérrez initiative calls for a six-year temporary visa for those undocumented already in the country, after which they could presumably qualify for permanent legal status upon returning to their country of origin (and waiving legal rights in the process by submitting to such a voluntary departure), and waiting at the back of the visa line. Doesn't this six-year period look something like the Bush plan? These workers would be just as vulnerable as before, maybe even more so. I characterize this clause of his legislation as the first stage guest-worker program. The second stage guest-worker program is his 400,000-plus "new worker visa" for future entrants.
(...) I don't think that such a compromise would be good for workers or for immigrants. Both represent an internal NAFTA-type option to guarantee an available supply of vulnerable laborers to and for Corporate America. Our role as class-conscious workers and organizers is to fight for the class interest of both particular sectors of the class and the total class, and within the context of the immigrants' rights movement, we are called upon to strengthen the weakest link in the chain. We are called upon to make the immigrant whole in America, legally and socially. Making the immigrant whole means unconditional legalization and an enjoyment of all the constitutional rights and their derivative protections and privileges--parity with all other workers.

immigration:
After the Swift & Co. raids, whole cities rallied to take in abandoned children, and the news couldn't ignore wives begging ICE for word of their husbands' fate for months without response. So ICE learned to keep the raids small but frequent and harsh, to strike at small towns and farmlands. Now, ICE agents burst into homes in early morning hours to roust sleeping families and drag parents away from cringing, terrified children. People who's "crime" of entering the U.S. without a visa is subject to a $50 fine are dragged off to private prisons for being in the vicinity of ICE sweeps for felons. Farmers in North Dakota are handcuffed and helplessly overlook vacant fields after thirty-six ICE agents cart away thirteen workers at gunpoint. Rumors persist of bicyclers dragged away and ICE raids on public busses. Two hundred children wear prison uniforms and languish in cells 23 hours a day at the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas.
(...) Not surprisingly, in the two months leading up to this year's May Day protests, the detentions have intensified. Armed, warrantless home invasions have left hundreds of families shattered. People have been hauled out of pizza joints, and "Latino-looking" shoppers at a Chicago mall were lined up against a wall at gunpoint, while white shoppers walked away. The Department of Homeland Security's notorious raid and deportation program, Operation Return to Sender, brags that it has imprisoned 18,000 people since its inception eleven months ago.
(...) According to Dave Schmidt of Se Se Puede Coalition, "This bill incorporates some of the most odious elements of the Sensenbrenner Bill. It's a step backwards. It still has the criminalization element of the Sensenbrenner bill. The people hear it's from the Democrats, and they think it's the best they can get. But it's a common thing in Latin America, people really think pretty radically. The answer, if you don't want people dying in the desert, you allow a humane immigration policy that allows people to work humanely." Si Se Puede Coalition is coordinating a march from San Diego State College to Presidio Park on Tuesday.
(...) It allows broader use of indefinite detention--imprisonment without a sentence--for lack of government paperwork than proposed in the 2006 Sensenbrenner proposal, and a fifteen-year prison term for misuse of identification. And the sweeps won't end if the bill is passed: the Gutierrez-Flake bill provides for building twenty more detention facilities, and a total of 20,000 beds.
(...) "People are forced to emigrate for lack of work. Otherwise, they will die. Fourteen men were rescued last December trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Senegal to New York City in a 50-foot boat, in search of work. Every other week we hear of the death or injury of a construction worker in New York, because the bosses don't follow safety rules. Any guestworker program is bullshit, it's not acceptable. We demand full legalization for all who are here." The May 1st Coalition New York is marching from Union Square to the Federal Building and immigration center at Foley Square.

immigration and STRIVE:
IF IT were up to the public at large, the estimated 11 to 13 million undocumented immigrants in this country would be eligible to apply for citizenship. That’s the conclusion of a new Gallup poll, which found 78 percent of people in favor of legalization.
(...) First, there’s George W. Bush’s proposal to force a small minority to pay a $10,000 fine to become eligible for citizenship--while the rest are confined to permanent second-class status as guest workers on proposed “Z” visas. Maintaining the three-year Z visa would require payment of a $3,500 fine--and another $3,500 for each renewal, thereby putting the federal government in the role of the labor brokers who extort payments from guest workers in order to get them jobs in the U.S.
(...) Moreover, the guest-worker program wouldn’t begin until after 570 miles of fence is installed on the U.S.-Mexico border.
(...) And like the Bush plan, the STRIVE Act legalization procedures would have to follow the enactment of enforcement measures. STRIVE even incorporates repressive measures from last year’s draconian HR 4437 proposal, known as the Sensenbrenner bill after its House sponsor.
(...) “Congress continues to view immigrants through a national security and disposable worker lens, proposing harsh enforcement while it moves away from permanent, family-based immigration toward temporary worker programs,” wrote Lillian Galedo on the New America Media Web site. “For the aspiring millions who spoke out for immigrant rights last year, this is not the response we wanted.”
(...) Yet many organizations historically committed to immigrant rights also support STRIVE. Grouped in the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR), the list includes not only NIF, but also UNITE HERE, the Service Employees International Union, the United Farm Workers, the National Council of La Raza, the Center for Community Change and organizations like the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The CCIR objects to certain aspects of STRIVE, such as the requirement to “touch back” to immigrants’ home countries. But Clarissa Martínez, a spokesperson for the coalition, said the group endorsed STRIVE because “the bill presents the right architecture to deal with this issue.”
(...) “We call this ‘Sensenbrenner Lite,’” Alexis Mazon, a member of the Tucson, Ariz.-based Coalicion de Derechos Humanos (Coalition for Human Rights) and an activist in the Tucson May 1 Coalition, told a reporter. “A lot of the provisions that were in HR 4437 are in HR 1645 [the STRIVE Act]...It is a proposal intended to criminalize the entire immigrant population.

the democratic compromise on immigration (davis):
[the situation] ONE YEAR after the mass marches for immigrant rights that challenged repressive legislation proposed by congressional Republicans, the Bush administration is set to unveil harsh new proposals to supply Corporate America with cheap and vulnerable immigrant labor, ratchet up enforcement, and make it extremely difficult for undocumented workers to become U.S. citizens.
(...) Many in the immigrant rights movement have looked to the new Democratic Congress to provide an alternative to Bush and the hardliners. Instead, the Democrats are seeking a compromise palatable to the ultra-conservatives in the Republican Party. The result is a bill--co-authored by two House members, liberal Democrat Luis Gutiérrez and conservative Republican Jeff Flake--known as the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy, or STRIVE Act.
(...) [myth: amnesty --> reality:] First, the majority of the nation’s 11-13 million undocumented people (those between ages 21 to 65, and not in the military, disabled or a single head of household) will have to leave the country within 90 days of the application process. Second, they must pay a minimum $2,000 fine and back taxes, and show proof of presence and consistent employment before and since June 1, 2006. Current law makes those who use fraudulent documents for employment (roughly 75 percent of all current undocumented workers) inadmissible for legalization.
Those able to satisfy the bill’s requirements would not get a green card (permanent residence). Instead, they would receive “conditional non-immigrant status,” a six-year waiting period during which time they would have to maintain consistent employment, learn fluent English and be placed in “the back of the line” behind millions of existing backlogged petitions (Waiting lists today are estimated at 5 to 7 years, although the STRIVE Act does contain clauses to expedite the process. Current law requires at least a five-year residency before attaining citizenship). If an undocumented immigrant worker does manage to complete all steps in the STRIVE Act, she or he can become a citizen only after at least 15 years--a fact that bill co-sponsor Jeff Flake has used as a selling point to conservatives. While some of the undocumented could gain legal status over time, many--perhaps millions--would fall by the wayside. Moreover, “conditional non-immigrant” status will make workers dependent on their jobs--and thus more compliant with poor working conditions and lower wages, as employers could hold the threat of termination over their heads.
(...) [myth: more protection for guest-workers --> reality:] Guest workers would be bound to a single employer and required to work for the duration of the contract. Any cessation of employment could be determined a breach of contract, allowing the employer to have the worker ejected from the country. While workers would be able to leave an abusive employer, they could do so only if they can secure another job in advance with another employer, who must officially offer them work and be registered with the government to participate in the program. If a worker were to leave a worksite without notification, they would be deemed “illegal” and subject to deportation if they are not reintegrated into a registered worksite within 60 days. All temporary workers would be tracked through an “Alien Employment Management System,” so they will be identifiable if they leave a worksite. Furthermore, the proposal doesn’t expressly guarantee the right to join a union or engage in collective bargaining. This, too, would leave workers vulnerable to employers that violate the provisions of the agreement. It is this denial of the freedom of movement and assembly, and the right to engage in genuine collective bargaining by immigrant guest workers that make this proposal so appealing for employers. Unlike the old bracero system and current guest-worker programs, the STRIVE Act would deliver workers into virtually every sector of the economy. Employers hope to leverage their control over guest workers to lower wages across the economy--and to reduce the presence of unions in their worksites.
(...) (myth: more humane, less enforcement --> reality:] The plan for external militarization includes doubling the number of Border Patrol agents (to about 24,000) by 2012, emphasizing the recruitment of former military personnel with experience in border enforcement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would further add 1,200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to investigate “immigration crimes.” (...)The proposal includes the development of a national biometric database to track all immigrants, as well as an “Electronic Employment Verification System” to identify the undocumented. (...) Those who cross the border without papers will be criminalized and subject to six months in prison for a first offense; two years for a second offense, and five years for a third offense. The use of forged passports or false visas could result in 15 years in jail.
(...) [in sum:] The bipartisan support for the STRIVE Act reveals how central “comprehensive immigration reform” is to Corporate America’s goal of disempowering labor in the U.S. While the Republican Party was defeated by the mass immigrant rights movement last spring, the baton has since passed to a Democratic Congress to salvage Corporate America’s vision. For those committed to a different vision--one based on full legalization for all, democratization of society and the empowerment of working families--the struggle continues in the streets and workplaces across the U.S.