As protests against the “immigration reform” measure HR 4437, passed in the House of Representatives last December, continue, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed its own version of “immigration reform” on Monday.
The Senate bill, while being described as “less harsh” than HR 4437, is still being criticized by many immigrant rights organizations who argue that the measure offers little to undocumented workers living in the United States. A cornerstone of the Senate’s bill, which is being described by many as a “compromise,” is a measure that would give undocumented immigrants a chance to earn green cards and eventually obtain citizenship in the United States. However, far from being a simple process, obtaining citizenship is an onerous process that few of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants would be able to successfully complete. To gain citizenship, immigrants would have to agree to work as a “temporary worker” for six years and, upon application, pay $2,000 in fines and back taxes, undergo criminal background checks, and show proficiency in English and civics. Similarly, immigrants who have engaged in “fraud” to gain employment, which could be the everyday practice among undocumented workers of using a false Social Security number (often at the behest of those employing them), could be barred from obtaining citizenship. Additionally, the bill calls for doubling the number of border patrol agents from 11,000 to 22,000 in the next five years and calls for the construction of detention centers for immigrants. Consequently, the measure continues the criminalization of immigration and pays little attention to the realities and dynamics of immigration. Moreover, Senator Bill Frist has forced debate on his Secure America’s Borders Act that would focus simply on developing increased mechanisms for criminalizing immigration.
The House bill, HR 4437, would dramatically increase the criminalization of immigration and move immigration violations from being a civil to a criminal matter. Under the measure, undocumented immigrants would be considered felons and would make it a crime to provide social services to undocumented immigrants. It would also give law enforcement agencies the authority to enforce immigration law and prescribes mandatory detention for all non-citizens attempting to enter the US unlawfully, while seeking to overturn a Supreme Court ruling against the indefinite detention of immigrants. The bill further calls for spending $2.2 billion to construct an additional 700-miles of wall along the United States-Mexico border. The House bill has been described locally as a product of xenophobia and racism that has been invoked to explain job loss rather than focusing on the difficult questions of globalization and economic policies. Similarly, the bill has to be seen within the same context of an overall increase in racism and anti-immigrant scapegoating that promotes “English-only” measures such as the one proposed for Michigan.
The proposed changes in immigration law have drawn significant attention from the immigrant community in West Michigan (a community which many estimate may be as many as 25,000 people) and their supporters. On Monday, a crowd of 10,000 marched against the proposed changes in one of the largest marches in Grand Rapids’ history. The march was the latest in a series of activities that have included a rally outside of Senator Carl Levin’s Grand Rapids office, a public forum that drew over 350 people, and an organizing meeting that drew over 100 in January. However, far from organizing as a simple reaction to the current measures, the organizing fits into ongoing organizing efforts by the local immigrant community that has organized a march of more than 400 for immigrant rights in May of 2004, organized in support of the DREAM Act, supported the Kennedy-McCain Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill, and actively organized to hold community leaders accountable for their actions.
