Several community groups question SB 744
The California Latino Legislative Caucus held informational
hearings on current efforts on immigration reform on Aug.27,2013, in
Sacramento, California. Speakers
from community groups, labor unions, growers, and Dreamers, among others,
presented the major issues and many of the problems with SB 744, the current
federal proposal. Enrique Moreno
of Border Angeles described terror on the border. There were clear divisions
among the groups about the current bill for its many repressive
characteristics. Mike Garcia of
SEIU the Service Employees International
was one of the more active
advocates for the bill saw the
passage of the amended S744 as a
major victory for working people. Conservative Republican forces in the U.S.
Senate amended the bill to achieve a massive $46
Billion expansion of border
control and enforcement. Moreno testified that this would only
lead to more deaths on the border.
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| Enrique Moreno |
California Governor Brown joined the hearing for a short
while and clearly endorsed efforts at comprehensive reform and promised to work
with the legislators to assist with related state issues.
You can view the entire hearing with its many excellent and
well informed speakers here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3dGzqkNhqQ&feature=player_detailpage
It is well done and well informed.
So far in
fiscal year 2013 the Obama administration has deported more than 311,000
undocumented according to a report by the Bureau of Customs and Border
Protection (ICE) requested by News Univision.com.
From
October 1, 2012 to August 3, 2013 the agency deported undocumented immigrants
311.387, 176.281 of them criminals (56.6%) and non-criminal 135.106 (43.3%).
A number
of repressive bills are being
prepared in the Republican dominated House of Representatives. Rep. Bob
Goodlatte, ( R. Virginia – 6th) Chair of
the House Judiciary Committee has a bill HR 1773 which would re-establish the
prior bracero program (guest workers) with many of its worst features, tying the work visa to a single farm
corporation, company housing, controlled wages, a external “savings” bank, and
more. This bill has already passed
the House Judiciary Committee.
The House Republican leadership
approach is to produce a series of bills on separate issues, not a
comprehensive bill. They plan, for example, to get a majority vote on the
enhanced border enforcement , drones,
and prison growth, while knowing that an independent bill offering a
reasonable pathway to citizenship would fail in the Republican House. By dividing up the issues they
intend to win on the repressive measures
and block comprehensive
immigration reform such as that favored by community groups, labor and DSA.
Since the bill is
so bad, and likely to get worse, why then do some labor leaders argue that the
bill should be supported ? Well,
it is something. Both SEIU and
UNITE/HERE among others, have hundreds of thousands, perhaps over a million workers
who hope for legalization. The
argument is that we should get them through the pipeline – even at the cost of
a repressive bill.
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