Monday, June 4th, 2007...7:35 am
STRIVE Act Meeting
Chicago congressman Luis Gutierrez visisted Tucson yesterday for a community meeting organized by Raúl Grijalva. The topic of the meeting was the STRIVE Act, sponsored by Gutierrez and Jeff Flake, and supported by Grijalva.
The public that showed up took up all the seats set up in the gymnasium at the El Pueblo Neighborhood center. The counter-protest promised by the anti-immigrant crowd consisted only of Joe Sweeney, who would argue with whoever chose to engage him. Despite this, there was a tiny police presence.
Gutierrez spoke for quite a while, describing the STRIVE Act’s differences with the current bill making its way through the Senate. The difference that Gutierrez chose to emphasize most was that his bill is not a guest worker program, which is one of the central features of the Senate bill. Both bills have some provisions for currently-illegal workers to pay fines and back taxes to be legalized, but the STRIVE Act puts them on a path to citizenship, rather than giving them a “sub-citizen” status under the proposed “Z Visa.”
Another important difference is the provision for the renewal of new worker visas. Under the Senate bill, workers stay here for two years, then have to return home for a year. There are concerns also that such a worker would have few enforceable rights and could be exploited by an employer. Under STRIVE, the visa would be valid for three years with a provision for one renewal. The worker can apply for a green card after five years. Most importatly, the “new worker” program under STRIVE does not call on workers to give up any rights, unlike what happens with most “guest worker” programs.
This isn’t to say that people on the pro-immirgation side of the aisle are thrilled with STRIVE. Derechos Humanos, which had members at the meeting, is at best skeptical of the bill. Many immigration advocates are angry about the “touchback” provision of the bill (requiring most immigrants to go home before being eligible for the program) and the enforcement positions in the bill.
Gutierrez addressed the enforcement provisions, which include more Border Patrol agents, more space for detention, language that addresses gang issues and electronic verification. Gutierrez knew that most of the audience were not big fans of the Border Patrol, but also said it was unrealistic to think that drugs and criminals are not crossing. He talked about the need to be humane, but that we also have to protect our country. Gutierrez made the point that if workers could come across legally, the Border Patrol could spend more time going after the folks that actually are dangerous. I can’t remember Gutierrez making this point, but it probably is not realistic to expect any “path to legalization” bill to pass without being coupled with some law enforcement provisions.
The congressional summary of the STRIVE Act has been posted here, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association has posted a summary with commentary of the act here.
1 Comment
June 4th, 2007 at 8:16 am
I really believe that solving the immigration crisis is the most important issue of our time. Eleven million people are here in the United States, 95% of them working hard everyday to feed their families or going to school so they can feed their families in the future.
Those people need a solution. They need to be able to work hard without looking over their shoulders and fearing that they will separated from the members of their family that are here legally.
We need a solution and we need one this year.
No bill is going to be perfect. The political situation being what it is, we will have to compromise on some things. The kids who can now not afford college in Arizona because of Prop. 300, the families with loved ones who risk deportation every day, they can not wait for us to win the Presidency and 61 seats in the Senate that it’ll take us to pass a perfect bill.
We must compromise. I believe the STRIVE act is a good compromise. We need to urge our Representatives to tell Nancy Pelosi that the House should pass something stronger then the Senate’s bill so that we increase the chances of getting something decent out of Congress.
But we must pass something this year.
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