Coalition Vows to Defeat Harsh Immigration Bill

Last month the House of Representatives, passed a Republican-backed bill that would institute a guest worker's program but would also turn approximately 11 million illegal immigrants into felons. Under present laws, being in the United States illegaly is only civil offense with the only recourse of deportation.
In response to the passage of this bill a coalition of 24 groups including labour groups, religious groups as well as businesses, are banding together in an effort to defeat

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has 1.8 million members, called for comprehensive reform to take control of the border and provided a way for illegal aliens to gain legal status.

"By establishing a legal, orderly process, we can bring immigrant workers in this country out of the shadows and under our laws, connect those workers with willing employers and allow our overburdened law enforcement and border patrols to focus on protecting Americans from those who might do us harm," he said.

The bill that was passed, would increase the civil and criminal penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The major problem that this coalition seems to have is that the bill does not address the status of the 11 million illegal immigrants that are already in the United States. It only addresses new immigrants that wish to come into this country to live / work.


Coalition vows to defeat harsh immigration bill

I firmly beleive that we need to somehow stem the tide of illegal immigrants and to get some kind of control on it. I also feel that this bill is ducking a major issue since it refuses to give somekind of status or route for those who are already illegally residing in the US.
Cardinal urges all to fight anti-immigration bill
LATIN AMERICA - Governments Against Border Fence
Border security a top priority for United States

A for your laugh of the day

Mexican candidates promise to stem northward migration

[edit on 19-1-2006 by kenshiro2012]

And it keeps getting darker.
The following is a report on just how serious the illegal immigration is.
Tight Immigration Policy Hits Roadblock of Reality
In September there was a promise made by HomeLand Security to swifly deport Non-Mexican border crossers. Bush as well as other Republicans applauded this move stating that it would curb the flood of illegals that cross the border between the US and Mexico.
Unfortunately this has proven NOT to be the case. Since October there has been an increase of 30% in the number of non_mexican illegals caught attempting to cross the border into the US. Because of this increase, since January, all the detention beds have been full causing the border agents to once again start the "catch and release" program where they catch an illegal immigrant give them a court date to face an immigration judge, and then release these illegals into the country. 70% of these non-mexican illegal immigrants fail to show up on their court date.
And of course the cayotes are getting smarter, They are now advising their "clients" to claim that they are from El Salvador. The reason for this misdirection? In the 80's there was a court decision made that anyone from El Salvador would be given his / her day in court. This was done during the bloody civil war that was going on back then in El Salvador.
And they say there is not a crises