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(New Content posted 01/16/04)
AUDIO FILE: LATINO GROUPS UNITED AGAINST BUSH IMMIGRATION PROPOSAL
On Friday morning, January 16, 2004, Latino groups united to hold a Press Conference at Portland State University in order to discuss President Bush's proposal for immigration reform. All groups united to call this proposal a cruel hoax.
(From their press statement)
"On Wednesday, January 7, President Bush announced plans to reform US Immigration laws by instituting a temporary worker program, through which workers could obtain temporary visas through a sponsoring employer. The visas, renewable for up to six years, would not, howeve,r lead to legal, permanant residency for the immigrant workers, who would be forced to either return to their country of origin or work without documents. Legal status uner the program would be dictated by employment, likely making workers who are afraid of losing their status easy prey for exploitative employers. Finally, although President Bush said these workers would be eligible for permanant residency "green" cards, the backlog in processing cases is so great that most temporary visas would expire before workers were granted residency.
Immigrant and labor rights organizations throughout the country have united to denounce the Bush administratio's proposal, calling for comprehensive immigration reform, not a revival of the guest workers program."
After an introduction by Ramon Rameriz of Northwest Tree Planters and Farmworkers United seven other speakers offered their comments. Ramon can be reached at 503-982-0243, ext. 201
First to speak was a representative from the office of County Commissioner Serena Cruz She read a statement prepared by Cruz, whose mother crossed the border illegally from Mexico for many years before she gained her citizenship.
Next was Martin Gonzales of the Latino Network, followed by:
Guadalupe Quinn of CAUSA, who can be reached at 541-968-6534;
Pedro Sosa of the American Friends Service Committee, who can be reached at 503-230-9427;
Eduardo Alguno, chairman of the Salem Keizer Coalition for Equality, a community based coaltion of organizations in the Salem-Keizer area;
Laurie King, of Portland Jobs with Justice;
and finally, Stephen Witte, executive director of the Oregon Farm Worker Ministry
Though each speaker went over some material covered by the others, each came to the Conference with a unique perspective and original information. The proposal is indeed a "hoax" in that it offetrs nothing to the immigrant workers, and paves the way for employers to hire cheap labor and quite possibley, drive down the wages for non immigrants.
A thumb nail sketch of what is wrong with the proposal:
*the temporary worker will essentially be controlled by the employer;
*the proposal lacks the labor protections aginst exploitation that the notorious Bracero program had and that are present in the abusive H-2A and H-2B temporary forign worker programs;
*these workers will not be able to earn their way to a "green card" with immigration status even after years of employment;
Statement by PCUN and CAUSA
In the face of President Bush's insufficient immigration reform proposal, we stand by the principles of the Immgrant Workers Freedom Ride and will use them to evaluate any and all immigration reform legislation that is proposed:
1. Reward work by granting legal status to hardworing, taxpaying, law-abding immigrant workers already established in the US:
2. Renew our democracy by clearing a path to citizenship and full political participation for our newest Americans;
3. Restore labor protections so that all workers, including immigrant workers, have the right to fair treatment on the job;
4 Reunite families in a timely fashion by streamlining our outdated immigration policies; and
Respect the civil rights and civil liberties of all so that immigrants are treated equally uner the law, the federal government remains subject to checks and balances, and civil rights laws are meaningfully enforced.
The audio file is about 37 minutes in length
Press Conference Audio