Arkansas advocates lament D.C. demise of immigration bill

BY BRANDON TUBBS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Immigration advocates in central Arkansas had said this week that the Senate immigration bill was a mixed bag that could have been improved, but they were disappointed at its failure Thursday.
Neil Sealy of the Arkansas chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now said Thursday, “The bill may have failed for now, at least, but the issue is there. And it has to be addressed. People can’t wait anymore, I think.”
“From our point of view, we will continue to put pressure on our elected officials to address a real need in this country. They may think it’s gone, but it ain’t dead,” Sealy said.
Carlos Cervantes, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Thursday, “We were all hoping for a compromise.”
Cervantes had said Wednesday of the immigration bill then on the table that “We support it as long as it’s comprehensive. ... Give us something that is reasonable.”
He said then that improvements to the legislation would have been to shorten the time needed to gain legal citizenship to seven to 10 years. Cervantes also wanted to hear a specific number for fines and penalties paid for living illegally in the country. Immigrants are willing to pay fines, he said, but they need to know an amount so they can start saving the money.
Cervantes said he realizes those working without green cards or citizenship papers are breaking the law.
“It’s broken down,” he said of the current system.
Cesar Compadre of the southwest Pulaski County health group La Casa said the key need in immigration legislation is a clear path to citizenship. An eight-year process is a reasonable expectation, Compadre said.
Elvira Aquirre knows the difficulty in obtaining citizenship.
Aquirre moved to Little Rock from Mexico City about four years ago on a tourist visa. Then she got a work visa. Now she is studying Spanish literature at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on a student visa. She still seeks permanent citizenship.
“If you work hard, you may have a better life,” Aquirre said. “But if you don’t have papers, you’re not free.”
People are afraid to speak, and people seeking a better life fear that their families will be split up in raids, she and others said.
Aquirre’s son, Omar Berumen, is waiting to see if he’ll receive a student visa. The 18-year-old graduated this year from Little Rock’s Central High School and said he’s lived in the United States most of his life.
“I’m basically an American, but what is disheartening to me is I’m treated like a second-class citizen,” Berumen said.
He is waiting to see if the federal government will approve his student visa application so he can attend college and pursue becoming a lawyer.
The mother and the son were among the several who gathered outside the Mercado San Jose restaurant on Geyer Springs Road in Little Rock to call for support of the immigration bill Wednesday.
The Arkansas Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which includes Arkansas ACORN, the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock, LULAC, the Hispanic Democratic Caucus and SEIU Local 100, rallied along Geyer Springs Road calling for Arkansas’ senators to support the bill.
The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform delivered a bouquet of flags Thursday to the Little Rock office of Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and expressed disappointment with his vote to stop the bill from progressing. His fellow Democrat from Arkansas, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, voted to continue action.
Cervantes of LULAC agreed with the sentiment of several senators who said Thursday that that immigration policy changes likely won’t come any time soon now that the legislation has failed.
“They’re not going to be able to get to it until ’09 or ’10,” said Cervantes, a fourth-generation American.
He noted that the country faces such other important issues as the war in Iraq, and he said Congress will put the immigration bill on the back burner so it can move on.
The longer it takes for elected leaders to make changes, the more illegal immigrants will enter the country, Cervantes believes.
Cervantes said Wednesday that the first priority must be to secure the border.
“Everybody wants to come to this country, and we can’t stop them,” Cervantes said. He added Thursday that he tells illegal immigrants, “You are breaking the law in my country.” But he said he understands where they’re coming from. “For them, it’s a matter of survival.”
A border fence, which has been discussed in recent years, is an option, he said.
The bill included $4.4 billion for border-security and law-enforcement provisions, a measure designed to satisfy some of the legislation’s critics when it was resurrected three weeks after the previous attempt died in the Senate.
Under the bill’s provisions, illegal immigrants could have applied under a Z Visa program to stay in the country if they met certain conditions. They would have had to pay fines, pay any back taxes owed, learn English, prove steady employment and get criminal-background checks.

This article was published on page 12 of the Friday, June 29, 2007 edition in the Front Section.