Thousands marched and the debate goes on

HR 4437 - The immigration debate

By: Ryan Sholin

Posted: 4/13/06

Thousands of people took to the streets in more than 100 cities and towns across the country on Monday in what organizers called a "National Day of Action." In San Jose, police estimated that 25,000 people marched through downtown on their way to City Hall.

Click here for a slideshow of the "National DAy of Action" in San Jose.

Jose Tejeda, a junior majoring in business management, said he was at Monday's march in San Jose.

"I came from an immigrant family," Tejeda said.

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Tejeda said he moved to the U.S. with his family when he was three years old.

"I think this country is composed of immigrants," Tejeda said. "I don't think it takes an economist to figure out that without Latinos, this country wouldn't be anything."

The recent set of protests began in January, but started to garner national media attention when an estimated 500,000 marchers in Los Angeles - including many high school students - set out on March 25 to voice their opposition to HR 4437, a bill the U.S. House of Representatives passed on Dec. 16 of last year.

The legislation would make being an illegal immigrant a felony.

Last week, the U.S. Senate reached a compromise on their own version of the legislation that would have established a guest worker program and a framework to help illegal immigrants become citizens. The agreement broke down on Friday when some senators argued for further revisions to the bill, and the legislators left for a two-week recess without passing the legislation.

The bill passed by the House of Representatives would subject anyone who "harbors, conceals, or shields from detection" an illegal immigrant to a minimum of three years in prison.

Tejeda said he appreciates all the privileges he's been given as a U.S. citizen, but he could not stomach the idea of going to jail for housing illegal immigrants.

"Think about it," Tejeda said. "If I shelter my grandparents, I'd be considered a criminal."

A spokesman for the California-based Minuteman Project, Tim Bueler, said in a phone interview that both the Mexican and American governments should both take responsibility for solving the immigration problem.

"We have a right way and a wrong way to do things," Bueler said. "Illegal aliens are marching in our streets and breaking our laws."

The Minuteman Project calls itself a "multi-racial and multi-ethnic" group advocating the "rule of law," according to its Web site. Group members patrolled the Arizona-Mexico border in April 2005.

Bueler said individual states should be denied federal funding if they are unwilling to classify illegal immigrants as felons.

Terry Christensen, a professor in SJSU's political science department, said the question of how to deal with immigrant workers and their families is nothing new for the Golden State.

"Immigration has been an issue in California politics for about 150 to 200 years," Christensen said. "We've gone through several anti-immigration movements. What's different about this is that it's a pro-immigration movement."

Maria Ochoa, a social sciences lecturer, said immigrants were "coming out of hiding."

According to Ochoa, white undocumented immigrants from places such as Ireland have begun to step forward in a display of solidarity with those from Mexico and other nations.

"The face of undocumented immigrants isn't strictly a brown, black, or yellow face," Ochoa said.

"Middle America" needs to balance its desire for inexpensive workers with its desire for inexpensive goods, Ochoa said.

Juan Montes, a junior accounting major born in Mexico, said he thinks the government doesn't enforce immigration law because of the strong demand business has for "cheap labor."

Montes called the situation "a joke," but he said American consumers share the blame.

He held up his fruit smoothie as an example of something that would cost more if workers were paid what he called a "fair wage" in American fields and kitchens.

"We wouldn't be paying $4 for something made out of berries," Montes said. "We'd be paying $8 for it."

Birch Wilson, a graduate student in a College of Education credential program, said he thinks the authorities choose not to enforce immigration laws.

"If the government really wanted to stop (illegal) immigration, they could," Wilson said.

Stanley Underdal, a lecturer in the history department, said the problem of how to regulate immigration has been a hot issue in California since as far back as 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act stopped all immigration from China until 1943. Underdal teaches classes on California history at SJSU.

According to Underdal, the proposed guest worker program bears a strong resemblance to the "bracero" program instituted by the U.S. and Mexico in 1942. Underdal said the agreement allowed farm owners to bring laborers from Mexico to work in their fields, with the guarantee of good treatment.

"How that worked depended on regulation," Underdal said.

The "bracero" plan let employers pay workers a low wage under poor living conditions, Underdal said, with a portion of their pay to be deposited in a sort of pension account which they were supposed to be able to access later. Some surviving "bracero" workers have filed lawsuits in recent years, he said, seeking the money the government supposedly put away for them.

"They always want cheap labor, no matter what they tell you," Underdal said.

The program ended in 1964 after critics spoke out about the dangerous working and living conditions.

Kyle Richter, freshman aviation major, said the enforcement of existing immigration laws might encourage illegal immigrants to become citizens.

"It'll probably solve the problem itself," Richter said.

Professor Christensen said he was impressed by the size of the crowds at Monday's marches.

"I've been here 35 years and I don't remember 25,000 people at a demonstration in San Jose," Christensen said. "I think it really was an historic event."