Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

1/26/01 News Report -- The San Jose Mercury News

As Congress settles into its new session in Washington, immigrant-rights groups around the Bay Area and across the nation are resuming an ambitious campaign to promote amnesty for the undocumented.

Their efforts last year ended in a bittersweet victory when federal laws were modified in December to help only a limited number of illegal immigrants. This year's efforts will prove even more difficult, organizers say, because of a Republican administration in the White House and strong opposition from immigration-control groups.

Still, the pro-immigrant groups are not deterred. Hundreds of immigration advocates are expected to attend a march and rally in Oakland on Saturday to call attention to amnesty and other proposals organizers say are needed to improve the lives of immigrants.

"We have to end the hypocrisy facing immigrants in the United States," said Agustin Ramirez, a member of the Labor Immigrant Organizing Network, the Oakland-based coalition behind the march.

"We contribute to this society as immigrants, yet millions of us are denied our most basic rights as human beings," Ramirez said. "We need amnesty and immigration-law reform . . . our community demands it."

Immigration-control groups and many Republicans in Congress oppose amnesty because, they say, it rewards lawbreakers and encourages subsequent immigration.

"However many people we grant amnesty to, there will be an exponential number of relatives who will come here to apply after them," said Ira Mehlman, West Coast spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform.

There are an estimated 7 million illegal immigrants in the United States, Mehlman said.

The march, similar to one in San Jose last April that attracted about 500 people, begins at 11 a.m. at St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church and ends with a rally at Carmen Flores Park on Fruitvale Avenue.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and other politicians are expected to attend, said Isobel White of the organizing coalition, which includes labor groups, religious leaders and non-profit community organizations.

Coalition leaders say amnesty is needed to improve the human rights of a population that works and lives largely underground, yet helps the local and national economy.

"The House of Representatives needs to recognize the contributions that the immigrant community provides in the United States," said Edwin Rodriguez of San Francisco's Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights. "And the representatives need to provide an opportunity for people to live without the fear of being arrested or deported."

March organizers also are calling for a repeal of sanctions on employers who hire illegal workers, better protection for undocumented employees who organize, an end to contract-labor programs, and the elimination of processing backlogs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Immigrant-rights groups, including labor organizations such as the AFL-CIO, unsuccessfully lobbied Congress last year to legalize the status of the undocumented who have been in the United States since 1986 -- the year of the last general amnesty legislation, when nearly 3 million people became permanent residents.

Late last year, an amnesty proposal was attached to a measure to increase the annual allotment of H-1B visas for skilled workers, raising the hopes of illegal immigrants that Congress was listening to their needs. The H-1B bill passed without the amnesty provision.

A sweeping amnesty proposal was then tacked on to an appropriations bill, but was later dropped.

The legislation eventually passed by Congress and signed in December by President Clinton temporarily eases regulations for some illegal immigrants.

It provides relief by allowing certain illegal immigrants to apply for permanent residency through April 30, by suspending a requirement that they leave the country for at least three years before returning to initiate the paperwork. The new law, which restores a provision known as Section 245(i), affects only those with a qualifying family member or employer to sponsor them.

Pro-immigrant groups acknowledge they will face more political opposition than they did last year in their attempts for amnesty legislation.

"I'm not being too naive, it will be an uphill battle," said Leon Chow, a labor organizer and chairman of the San Francisco Chinese Progressive Association. He remains hopeful -- encouraged by the momentum of grass-roots groups.