http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050601/NEWS01/10 6010003/-1/news01
Groups back immigration-reform bill By DAVID BROOKS, Telegraph Staff [EMAIL PROTECTED] Published: Wednesday, Jun. 1, 2005 MANCHESTER - New Hampshire seems an unlikely venue to push for immigration reform, since the total number of illegal immigrants living here wouldn't fill the Verizon Wireless Arena, and by some estimates wouldn't even fill Holman Stadium. But several groups that gathered in Manchester on Tuesday to support proposed changes to federal immigration law argued that the issue affects everybody in the state, whether citizen, legal immigrant or undocumented alien. "Contractors . . . they say, 'I hate these people (illegal immigrants) because they bring the wage down,' " said Idary Sann, a representative of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35, a union with about 1,000 members in New Hampshire. "But also I see (illegal immigrants) who work four, five weeks without pay, and they cannot open their mouths (to complain)." Sann, a native of Cambodia who lives in Lowell, Mass., argued that both groups could be helped by an immigration-reform bill proposed May 12 by U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz. Among its provisions, the bill would allow millions of illegal immigrants to pay a fine and gain temporary legal status, as well as greatly enlarge a guest-worker program. Sann said that would make it easier for immigrant workers to get legal protection on the job, and make it harder for them to be hired at sub-par wages. Critics, however, fear the bill will open floodgates to immigration, particularly from Mexico, and would unfairly reward illegal immigrants at the expense of those who have been waiting to enter the U.S. through legal channels. Debate on the bill, called the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005, has not yet begun in Congress. The number of illegal immigrants is extremely hard to pin down - one speaker Tuesday called it a "dark number" - but a recent survey by the Pew Hispanic Center said that New Hampshire is in the bottom tier of states in this category, with no more than 10,000 undocumented aliens living here. Some estimates put that number as low as 2,500, said Ali Noorani of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, which sponsored Tuesday's press conference. Still, the issue of illegal immigrants has gained a high profile here due to arrests in New Ipswich and Hudson of Latinos who were charged with criminal trespassing, a state law, because they were believed to be in the country without permission. Many were living in Massachusetts and traveling to jobs in New Hampshire. Those charges, which have yet to be tested in a trial, have drawn both praise and censure from around the country. "Chief (Garrett) Chamberlain (of New Ipswich) has identified a problem but did not, in my opinion, take the right approach," said Noorani. "If he wants to be creative in his solutions, he should work in an advertising agency, because he has done a good job of advertising the whole immigration situation." Noorani said Tuesday's press conference was held in Manchester not to take advantage of the attention due to the arrests, but an attempt to put pressure on New Hampshire's two U.S. senators to support the bill. The session was held at the International Institute of New Hampshire on Pine Street in downtown Manchester, which primarily concerns itself with aiding foreign refugees. Anne Sanderson, site director for the institute, said the New Ipswich arrests had produced little impact there because its clients are in the country legally. Sanderson also supported the proposed immigration bill, particularly provisions to pay for a great expansion in English-language and civics classes. Other speakers, including Nabil Migalli of the Arab-American Forum, argued that the bill was a "practical" way to meet America's security needs. "Opponents tend to invest in fear," said Migalli, noting that all the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks were in the country legally. The proposed immigration act also seeks to make it easier for employers to determine if immigrant workers are legal or not. It would shift immigration enforcement from "guns at the borders" to an "employer-based enforcement system," said Westy Edgmont of the International Institute. "(Employers) talk of the difficulty of filling jobs that used to be filled by the native-born. . . . Today, we are not raising farmhands or people who want to freeze on the ski slopes, serving (others)," said Edgmont, talking about the need for seasonal labor from overseas needed by New Hampshire industries such as skiing and fruit harvesting. "We need folks to backfill those employment situations." A summary of the Secure American and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 as distributed by its sponsors in Congress can be seen on numerous Web pages, including: www.facts-online.org/campaign/naoc/explanation [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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