Contact: Scott Gunderson Rosa, (202) 833-6130
For Immediate Release: November 15, 2001
Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) today expressed optimism that the United States and Mexico would be resuming talks on immigration reform. Creating a better situation for millions of undocumented workers in the United States was high on the priority list of both President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox until the events of September 11, 2001.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO) will travel to Mexico on Friday to discuss immigration with President Fox. Next week Tuesday mid-level officials from both countries will resume talks.
"LULAC is pleased that the United States and Mexico are putting immigration reform back on the table," said Rick Dovalina, LULAC National President. "We realize that the events of September 11 call for increased national security, however we also have to understand that hard-working immigrants should not be punished for the actions of others. Now is the time to revisit the talks begun back in August and come up with a plan to legalize the status of millions of immigrants contributing to our economy."
The United States could actually enhance national security by legalizing immigrant workers, who would be subject to FBI background checks. It would also allow the United States to more accurately know exactly who is in the country and eliminate those that pose a threat.
"If you legalize the status of undocumented workers you allow them to step out of the shadows and become regular members of our society," said Dovalina. "The country benefits because it knows who is here, where they are, and what they are doing."
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted yesterday to restore food stamps to thousands of legal immigrants whose benefits were cut in 1996. The provision is part of a larger farm and nutrition bill. However, the House version of the bill fails to restore immigrant benefits.
"LULAC applauds the Senate for taking action to help thousands of legal immigrants who have unnecessarily struggled to feed their families for the past five years," said Dovalina. "I hope that our representatives in the House can agree that this is something very critical to our communities and allow this provision to be included in the final bill."
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Republican members of Congress are proceeding with two separate plans to reform the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Ashcroft's plan would separate the agency into enforcement and services divisions, but still maintain one agency. Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, proposes to create two completely separate entities.
"We are all well aware that the INS has struggled to provide accurate and timely services to the hundreds of thousands of people seeking to become citizens and permanent residents, while increased funding for border enforcement has failed to alleviate the flow of immigrants looking for work," said Dovalina. "Any plan to restructure the INS must include adequate funding to the services division to relieve the backlog and provide the services that are needed. We are concerned that with national security being a high priority right now, funding for enforcement will be plentiful and services will remain the same or get worse."
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health, and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.