Democrats Abroad Australia

Next week, Republican Senate Leader Bill Frist is likely to introduce a harmful immigration bill on to the Senate floor that will criminalize good Samaritans, including church members and clergy, and does not provide a larger, comprehensive framework for reform or a path to citizenship. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement on President Bush and the Republican Congress's failure to lead on the issue of immigration:

"President Bush and his Republican Congress's failure to offer comprehensive solutions on immigration reform and their attempt to use the issue to divide Americans is contrary to our values as a people and does a disservice to all who live and work in this great nation. The hostile anti-immigrant bill passed by the Republican House and now being considered by the Republican Senate is not the answer. America needs comprehensive immigration reform that protects our borders, keeps our communities safe, and brings America together.

"Criminalizing families and the work of clergy is not the way forward. A comprehensive and compassionate approach must protect all U.S. workers and their wages, prevent exploitation of immigrant workers, and offer immigrants who have earned it the opportunities and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. The American people want change, not more of the same scape-goating and ineffective, piecemeal immigration reform Republicans are proposing."

BY JESSE JACKSON

"Sa se puede!" Yes we can. They marched by the hundreds of thousands in Los Angeles, by the tens of thousands in Milwaukee, in Phoenix, in New York. Across the country, Hispanics dramatically entered what has been an increasingly ugly debate about immigration in this country.

Rep. Tom Tancredo is gaining national attention railing against undocumented immigrants. He wants them turned into felons, a wall built along our border to keep them out, police dispatched to send them home. He does not bother to tell us how he plans to transport 11 million estimated undocumented workers out of the country. Nor what will happen to the millions of their children who were born here and are American citizens.

Senate leader Bill Frist is doing his own Tancredo. Efforts by Senators Kennedy and McCain to fashion a compromise look likely to fail in the face of the furies. President Bush has offered an employers bill -- why does this not surprise? He'd increase enforcement at the border, but create a guest worker program so that employers could ship low wage immigrants in, so long as they promise to boot them out when they've finished exploiting them.

When employers brought slaves to America, few objected as long as they were prepared to work without wages and without rights. When they began to demand equal rights, all hell broke loose. No one minded when Mexican farm workers came to pick the crops, do the lawns, clean the houses. When they started to demand the right to citizenship, to vote, to organize -- the furor started.

American workers are sensibly worried that the flood of immigrant labor will bring lower wages as part of the global race to the bottom. But their complaint is with employers who prefer undocumented workers whom they can exploit without complaint, and with federal and state authorities who turn a blind eye to that exploitation.

There is no way anyone is going to locate, arrest, detain and ship millions of undocumented workers out of America. Our choice is whether we want to maintain permanently a large underclass of undocumented workers that can be easily exploited by cynical employers, and slurred by callous politicians -- or whether we want to fulfill America's promise by providing them with a road to citizenship, benefitting from their willingness to work, pay taxes and contribute.

How do we stop our country from being overrun by impoverished immigrants if we offer them pathways to citizenship? There is only one way -- and it is not mentioned in this debate. We passed a treaty called NAFTA with Mexico and Canada that guaranteed rights to employers and investors but not to workers. The results have been catastrophic. Wages in Mexico, the United States and Canada have fallen. Mexico now exports more cars to the United States than the United States exports to the world -- all made by U.S. companies benefitting from cheap labor in Mexico. And U.S. food exports have displaced millions of poor Mexican peasants and driven them from their communities. They don't come to the United States because they want to leave their homes. They come desperate for work.

The only way to stop the flood of immigrants is to help lift their standards up, rather than drive ours down. When Europe created one trading union including impoverished Spain and Portugal, the high wage countries of the north spent billions on development in the poorer countries, while demanding that they adhere to labor rights, environmental protections and basic social protections. While those countries still are not as wealthy as those in the north, their people were given hope and opportunity -- and would much prefer to stay home.

We can spend billions trying to lock immigrants out and hold those that come in down. Or we can devote energy and resources now wasted on a civil war in Iraq to help lift our neighbors up, gain real trading partners and significantly reduce the misery that drives people from their homes.

Potential presidential candidates like Frist, Tancredo and even supposedly straight-talking John McCain won't say anything like this. But that's the truth. And in the end, it is the truth, and only the truth, that will set you free.

As President Bush travels to Mexico this week, it is imperative he make up for his past inaction and show real leadership on immigration. Four years after 9/11, the Bush Administration has turned its back on Mexico and the needs of our allies in the Western Hemisphere and has ignored the vital issue of immigration here in the U.S. As a Washington Post editorial noted today, "the president himself has been unwilling, so far, to match his words about [immigration] reform with deeds to make certain it gets done." They called on President Bush "to step up" and provide real leadership. [Washington Post, 3/30/06]

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement on President Bush's failed leadership on immigration and the need for comprehensive and tough immigration policies:

"First, the President supported the draconian Republican House bill that criminalizes the work of the clergy, while now he pretends to be a moderate. But, the fact is, President Bush has shown no leadership on immigration. President Bush must take a stand and provide real direction.

"America deserves realistic solutions to immigration, consistent with American values. That means reform that is comprehensive, tough and smart but also compassionate. We need laws that will secure our borders, protect all U.S. workers and their wages, prevent exploitation of immigrant workers, and offer immigrants who pay taxes and don't have trouble with the law a path to earn the opportunities and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. America needs comprehensive immigration reform that protects our borders, keeps our communities safe, and brings America together. Criminalizing families and the work of churches is not the right way forward.

"The American people want change, not more of the same failed immigration proposals that scapegoats immigrants, as too many Republicans are proposing. Democrats will continue to fight for comprehensive immigration reform