The City Council’s Committee on Immigration held a hearing on Resolution 42, calling upon the United States Congress to oppose President Bush’s federal temporary guest worker program and to support comprehensive immigration reform that includes permanent legalization and fair worker protection for immigrants.
The committee’s Chair, Council Member Kendall Stewart, explained that Bush’s proposed program would give temporary guest worker status to new foreign workers and grant legal status to undocumented immigrants already living here who apply for temporary worker permits jointly with their employers. For three years these immigrants would be eligible to receive benefits and rights associated with legal status, such as the right to obtain a driver’s license and to travel freely. But after that time, unless they attempt to renew their status, they would be required to return to their countries of origin.
Said Stewart, “While this proposal acknowledges the necessity for a national dialogue about immigration, it does not incorporate essential needs of immigrants, including pathways to permanent residency and citizenship, worker’s rights, and family unity. Instead of working towards stabilizing the lives of immigrants and their families, Bush’s proposal would provide uncertain and insecure terms of employment for immigrants by offering only temporary legal status, and it would create a caste of second-class workers who lack the opportunity to become fully integrated into society.”
Resolution 42, which was introduced by Council Member Miguel Martinez, addresses the considerable harm to immigrant workers this proposal could cause. “Furthermore, it would hurt all workers, native and foreign-born alike,” he stated, “by legitimizing employers who do not offer decent wages or working conditions to the nation's most vulnerable workers. This system would create an underclass of workers overly dependent on their employers for their continued stay in the United States and therefore vulnerable to workplace abuse. That, in turn, would lower the wage standards and intensify current workplace abuse of immigrants rather than ensure fair and equal treatment.”
The committee heard important testimony from activists representing many different immigrant advocacy organizations stating why they oppose the President’s proposal and urging the City Council to pass Resolution 42 condemning it. For instance, Daniel Chavez, the Campaign Coordinator for Association Tepeyac of New York, a network of community-based organizations founded by Mexican immigrants, made it clear that they are against any immigration proposal that doesn’t lead to the possibility of permanent residency for immigrant workers. They also oppose this legislation because it doesn’t address the enormous backlogs and service delays in the immigration system that cause family members to be separated for years on end.
Ana Maria Archila, Executive Director of the Latin American Integration Center, said that Bush’s proposal is, in reality, a dead end for immigrants who have been displaced from their homelands due to economic hardship and internal turmoil, and have come to this country, making it a place of prosperity. “It sends a message to immigrants and their families: ‘Your hard work and tax dollars are welcome, but you are not. Go back to your country!’”
Yu Soung Mun, executive director of the Young Korean American Service and Education Center, concurred. “In our view, President Bush’s message to the undocumented community is clear: undocumented immigrants are welcome and needed in our economy, but not in American society,” he said.
Bakary Tandia, case manager and policy advocate for the African Services Committee, spoke movingly of the fact that as an immigrant working with immigrants on a daily basis, he knows the hardships people suffer because of their undocumented status — fear of being deported, the impossibility of traveling to fulfill the wishes of a terminally ill mother, the lack of decent jobs and the opportunity to access education.
Tandia told of the joy the African immigrant community felt when they first heard of the President’s proposal and the consequent disappointment when they saw that it does not offer any options to the self-employed, such as hair braiders, vendors and taxi drivers, who make up much of the African immigrant community.
Brian McLaughlin, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, pointed out that Bush’s plan deepens the potential for abuse and exploitation of immigrant workers and undermines wages and labor protections for all workers, by formalizing a larger class of workers who are accorded second-class status in American workplaces. According to him, this will exacerbate the decline in job quality and job security for all workers.
Like many people who testified - including high school student Angela P. who was born in Colombia - McLaughlin challenged the President to press the Republican leadership in Congress to pass critical bipartisan immigration proposals that are pending in Congress, such as the DREAM Act. This legislation would provide assistance and access to a college education for qualified undocumented students who are among our best and brightest. He also urged support for the Agricultural Jobs Bill, which would legalize 500,000 hardworking farm workers, and to oppose the CLEAR ACT, which would deputize local police to serve as immigration enforcement agents.
Resolution 42 has received broad support from council members, with over 25 members already signed on. The Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus has endorsed it, and others supporters are being added every day.
