|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Sandinista Salvation?
Old adversaries make a new bid for power.
The war that bin Laden wants.
Behind the Burka
Afghan women who fight the Taliban.
Humanitarian aid has become a weapon of war.
The terrorist money trail leads back to Midland, Texas.
Congress is making the economy worse.
Why the Democrats will get trounced in 2002.
A New Peace Movement?
Should the government be allowed to hold immigrants on "classified" charges?
Citibank attacks money-laundering regulations.
Immigration reform is derailed by attacks.
Coal Miners' Slaughter
Could an Alabama disaster have been prevented?
Time Is Tight
The cutoff is starting for welfare recipients.
FILM: Take a left turn at Mulholland Drive.
Shakespeare at the Barricades
BOOKS: Insurrections in the mind.
Enduring Freedoms.
Trading on Terrorism.
Give War A Chance
Bombs away!
|
STUCK AT THE BORDER
Immigration reform is derailed by attacks
NEW YORKIt didnt take long, recalls Nadia Marin-Molina, for the
telephone to start ringing with reports of harassment by particularly vigilant
people looking for anyone who appeared to be Muslim. The calls, says Marin-Molina, executive director of the Workplace Project in
Hempstead, New York, came from day laborers, mostly young men and women from
Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico who wait at street corners in towns on Long
Island for contractors to offer work. Though theyre not of Arab descent,
in the days following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the
customary drive-by harassments and police patrols monitoring the areas
day laborers grew steadier and uglier. Sensing their safety could be at risk,
immigrants began to stay in their homes. We realized pretty quickly that this anti-immigrant sentiment wouldnt
just pertain to one group, that the consequences would ripple through all groups,
Marin-Molina says. Its an impact of feara feeling that if
we speak up, what is going to happen to us? Though it still may be too early to judge the effect of the past months
events on immigration law reform as well as the publics image of immigrants,
there is little doubt that priorities have changed. In Congress, the timetable
for immigration reform has likely been set back six months or more. Nationally,
immigration activists worry that all immigrants, or those assumed to be foreign-born,
run the risk of being categorized as bothersome or even dangerous. We
are certainly concerned about there being a shift in the general public that
would paint the entire immigrant community based on what a few villainous individuals
were engaged in, says Arturo Rodriguez, executive director of the United
Farm Workers. Before the attacks, President George W. Bush had been urging the public to
view undocumented immigrants as hard-working and conscientious rather than law-breakers
resistant to assimilation. Free of the bellicose rantings of Pete Wilson and
Pat Buchanan, immigration reform had seemed an issue that liberals as well as
conservatives could embrace. Mexican President Vicente Fox came to Washington in the week just before the
attacks to implore U.S. lawmakers to pass legislation that would recognize the
integral role of undocumented workers in the U.S. economy. Perhaps motivated
by the hope of winning over Latino voters, and surprising many, Bush eagerly
concurred. Though the specifics of legislation had yet to be determined, civil
rights, labor and religious groups were cautiously hopeful that a full-scale
legalization program for the undocumented was in the offing. All that changed, of course, on September 11. Rather than crafting ways that
the Immigration and Naturalization Service might plan programs to legalize many
of the countrys more than 8 million undocumented immigrants, the INS has
since been told it can take an additional reasonable period of time
deciding whether to continue to detain a non-U.S. citizen suspected of committing
a crime. Instead of enacting laws that might give noncitizens the same workplace
rights as those born in the country, at press time it was likely that the Bush
administration would secure measures allowing immigrants suspected of terrorism
to be detained without charges for a week. (Ashcroft wanted the right to detain
noncitizens under suspicion indefinitely.) Another Bush proposal that would have required schools to reveal information
about foreign students to investigators was nixed, though the number of student
visas is sure to be curtailed and background checks significantly increased. Anti-immigration groups seized upon the attacks. In a statement released just
hours after the planes hit the Twin Towers, the Washington-based Federation
for American Immigration Reform argued that the nations defense
against terrorism has been seriously eroded by the efforts of open-borders advocates,
and the innocent victims of todays terrorist attacks have paid the price. The publics fear of terrorism will have to be weighed into any future
package of immigration reform proposals. Angela Kelley, deputy director of the
National Immigration Forum, says concessions to the new political realities
do not necessarily have to impede measures that would reunite immigrant families,
increase wages for farmworkers or make it easier for longtime undocumented workers
to become legal. Stopping terrorism is really about better human intelligence,
better information sharing, better technology, Kelley says. Its
about knowing the whereabouts of people on a watch list and having staff that
are experienced at spotting fake documents. I dont think any of that is
unreasonable. As before, the future of immigration reform may depend largely on the strength
of the economy. The suggestion that the supply of workers would be increased
at a time of heightened unemployment would likely hurt the chances for an expanded
legalization program. Fear of terrorism, though, is sure to shape both the machinations
of immigration politics as well as the organizing efforts of those who work
most closely with undocumented immigrants. |