- WASHINGTON (EFE) - Using
the word "legalization" - a term scrupulously avoided by the
Bush administration - Senate minority leader Tom Daschle says Democrats
will keep pressure on the president and congressional Republicans to fix
the status of many of the millions of immigrants living unlawfully in the
United States.
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- "It is very important to keep the pressure on the
president to act on legalization. Lately he has been less than enthusiastic,"
the South Dakota Democrat told EFE in an interview. "We need to get
this done. We need to make it a high priority," he added.
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- His comments came as Mexico has begun to press more insistently
for progress on the status of an estimated 3 million Mexicans living illegally
in the United States, and as congressman Luis Gutierrez presented a bill
providing for broad normalization of immigrants' status.
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- Daschle said he considers it a responsibility of the
Senate to create a climate of particularly good relations with Mexico.
If President George W. Bush does not take up anew the issue of Mexicans
living in the United States, "Congress will have to assume that role,"
he added.
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- Bush, at the beginning of his presidency in early 2001,
said U.S. relations with Mexico would be privileged. He counts Mexican
President Vicente Fox, a fellow rancher, as a personal friend.
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- By mid-2001, administration sources were saying some
sort of accord "normalizing" the status of most Mexican immigrants
- those who could show they have been in the country for several years,
hold jobs and have no criminal records - was near. Even so, administration
officials took pains to not call it "legalization" or to refer
to any measure favoring immigrants as an "amnesty."
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- But the terrorist attacks of that September and the fear
of porous borders they provoked knocked the initiative off the track, as
immigrants became generally more suspect.
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- Daschle also said that, as the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) is folded into the Department of Homeland Security, "We
really need to safeguard the rights to privacy and constitutional rights
of all people who are in the country."
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- For his part, Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez presented
on Wednesday a bill that would grant residency to those immigrants who
can prove they have lived in the country for five years and have had no
problem with the law.
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- The initiative also proposes "conditional"
residency for those who arrived later, putting them on course for a Green
Card if they fulfill certain requirements.
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- The bill, called the "Unity, Security and Accountability,
or USA Family Act," also includes measures benefiting immediate family
members of the person applying for residence.
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- Representatives of immigrant-advocacy groups from 15
states gathered on Capitol Hill to develop a strategy for effectively pushing
the bill.
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- Even so, prospects for its passage appeared slight, with
Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and reluctant, in the wake
of the September 2001 attacks, to make immigration to the United States
easier.
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- Backers of Gutierrez's bill urged immigrants who have
become citizens to press their congressional representatives to support
it. They said citizens should make clear to lawmakers that immigration
reform is a top priority of the growing Hispanic electorate.
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- "We cannot keep denying the realities of immigration
in this country," said Gutierrez. "The system is antiquated and
cannot respond to our workforce requirements."
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- "All over the country, immigrants are playing an
important role by responding to the demands of our economy," he said.
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- http://www.quepasa.com/content/?c=104&id=99952
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