March 28, 2024
Immigrant groups might accept legalization without automatic path to citizenship
Immigrant advocates, responding to expected new GOP overtures on immigration reform, are signaling they may back off on their long-standing insistence that reform legislation must include a “special path” to eventual citizenship for the country’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

Instead, a variety of immigrant advocates this week said they were delighted that House Republicans now seem open to finding ways to compromise on illegal immigration, including reported proposals that would “legalize” various categories of undocumented immigrants but not necessarily allow them all to become U.S. citizens.

“To see the Republicans moving from self-deportation to legalization is a major shift,” said Clarissa Martinez of the National Council of La Raza in Washington. “There is a big chasm between saying “no special path” and shutting the door to citizenship entirely. It could mean a lot of things. There is no clarity or definition yet, but it is a start and we are definitely encouraged.”

Democrats in Congress and President Obama have signalled a willingness to listen to an emerging House GOP proposal which would offer immigrants limited legal status. At the same time, Richard L. Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor union, said such a plan would be a “non-starter” and would not receive union backing.

Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigrant advocate group America’s Voice, said neither advocates or Democratic legislators would accept proposals that “create a permament underclass” of non-citizens, but that they might accept legislation that allowed many undocumented immigrants to obtain some form of legal status and “most, if not all” to eventually achieve citizenship through “normal channels.”

“The details matter hugely, and we don’t know what they will be,” Sharry said. But if a mix of ideas now being discussed among Republicans evolve into concrete proposals, including citizenship for student “dreamers,” work permits for some adults, and green card sponsorship for illegal spouses and parents of U.S. citizens, he said, “that might meet our demands.”

According to a study released this month by the National Foundation for American Policy in Arlington, between 4.4 million and 6.5 million illegal immigrants, mostly parents of U.S. born children, could gain eventual U.S. residency under current approaches being discussed informally in the House. The bipartisan Senate bill that passed last year would have allowed about 8 million people to gain residency.

While the new flexibility among House Republicans on immigration reform largely reflects a pragmatic realization that they will need to attract the rapidly growing number of Latinos and other immigrant voters, the less adamant insistence on citizenship among immigrant advocates reflects a more practical attitude among many illegal immigrants themselves.

According to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center, a majority of Hispanics in the United States believe that being able to live and work in the U.S. legally, without fear of being deported, is more important for illegal immigrants than having a pathway to U.S. citizenship. The report said that 59 per cent of foreign-born Hispanics expressed fear that they, a relative or close friend might be deported. Pew called these findings a potential “opening for legislative compromise. “

The study found that 55 per cent of Hispanics, a group that accounts for three quarters of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., see legal protection as a higher priority than citizenship. It also noted that many immigrants do not choose to seek citizenship when they have the opportunity, and that only 44 per cent of legal Hispanic immigrants have become citizens.

In interviews this week in the Washington area, a variety of undocumented immigrants expressed similar views to the Pew survey, calling citizenship a distant dream that paled in comparison to their urgent desire to be able to work legally and without fear.

“Why do we have all these marches and speeches about citizenship for 10 million people? Why don’t they focus on what we all want, which is to be able to work?” said Jose Joya, 36, a maintenance worker from El Salvador who lives in the District. “If you get a work permit, you can buy a car and pay your taxes and spend money without thinking you could be arrested. What we want is to be legal.”

Immigrant advocates said there were a number of ways illegal immigrants could be given some form of legal status that could lead to citizenship under certain circumstances, such as sponsorship by employers or relatives, but that would not automatically offer them that chance. It is the notion of such an automatic offer, or “special path,” that has aroused such ardent opposition among many House Republicans.

Angela Kelley, an immigrant expert at the Center for American Progress, said the current “palpable political thaw” among Republicans was creating “balmy conditions” for compromise. In a telephone press conference by immigrant advocates Wednesday, she described one possible area of compromise that legislators could pursue.

“Congress could create a program where people who meet certain requirements and qualifications can get work authorization that permits them to be in the U.S. for a period of time, and then renew it, and be protected from deportation,” Kelley said. “It would permit you to travel but not give you status like a green card that you could adjust to naturalize and become a citizen.”

The two other major categories of illegal immigrants who could be legalized through legislative compromise, in many cases by expanding or modifying legal channels that already exist, are those who were brought here as children, known as “dreamers,” and parents or spouses of U.S. citizens.

According to the study by the National Foundation for American Policy, between 800,000 and 1.5 million immigrants are so-called “dreamers” who came to the U.S. illegally as children, and at least another 4 million are undocumented parents or spouses of U.S. citizens. Congress could conceivably grant such individuals the right to be sponsored for residency by their citizen relatives, and it could also remove current multi-year egal barriers for them to return to the U.S. if deported.

“If the proposals are generous with the dreamers, offer people without criminal problems a chance to stay and work, and allow those with close family members or jobs to be sponsored for green cards, then it would be realistic to have a compromise with the Senate position,” said Stuart Anderson, a former federal immigration official who authored the study.

President Obama has already ordered a legal amnesty for qualified members of the “dreamer” generation who arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16, but some advocates said it should be expanded to include slightly older people as well.

“If Republicans are saying that citizenship is okay for some people under some conditions, but not for everyone, then it raises an immediate question,” said Gustavo Andrade, who works with young immigrants at the advocacy group Casa of Maryland. “If someone now aged 29 can qualify for citizenship, why not someone aged 32?” he asked. “How do you decide who is deserving and who isn’t?” (Source: The Washington Post)
Story Date: January 31, 2014
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