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Press Release

LULAC endorses call for comprehensive immigration reform.

May 17, 2006

Contact: Lizette Jenness Olmos
202-833-6130 ext. 14

Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) after careful analysis of President Bush’s speech released the following statement:

“Overall, we support much of what the President stated last night. We agree with the five clear objectives of comprehensive immigration reform that the President put forth including securing our borders, creating a temporary worker program, making it easier for employers to verify employment eligibility and continuing to hold them to account for the legal status of workers they hire, dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants who are already here, and honoring the great American tradition of the melting pot,” said LULAC National President Hector M. Flores.  

LULAC has a long standing policy opposing the use of military personnel on the border because they are not trained to carry out this task. Nevertheless, we understand the president’s intention to deploy the National Guard to support the Border Patrol by operating surveillance systems, analyzing intelligence, installing fences and vehicle barriers, building patrol roads, and providing training. This request was made by the Governors of Arizona and Texas and as long as the deployment is temporary and in a non-law enforcement capacity we are not overly alarmed.  

LULAC is opposed to engaging local law enforcement in federal immigration law.  If local police enforce immigration law, immigrant communities will no longer trust the police and will be afraid to report crimes or cooperate with investigations. In addition, racial profiling of Latinos and other communities with high numbers of immigrants will dramatically increase as police begin stopping people they “think” might be immigrants. Local law enforcement is already strained to capacity and it is not practical to impose this additional burden on officers.  The role of local law enforcement is to provide public safety for communities, not to become agents of fear and distrust.  We hope that the Senate will strongly reconsider this matter before voting for any bill that contains such provisions. 

We support the creation of a temporary worker program that creates a legal avenue for foreign workers to enter the United States and that does not criminalize workers. This program would match willing foreign workers with willing American employers for jobs Americans are not doing. However, we would prefer that workers who participate in this program have a path to permanent legal residency should they choose it rather than the separate track.  

We have concerns about the creation of a tamper-resistant identification card that would be required for every legal foreign worker because citizen workers and permanent legal residents would not have to carry one as well. As a result, the sale of forged documents will continue and Hispanics are likely to be asked for the tamper-resistant ID cards while non-Hispanics will not be asked leading to discrimination in the workplace. 

We support the President’s position that undocumented immigrants already here pay a meaningful penalty, pay their taxes, undergo a background check, learn English, and work in a job for a number of years in order to earn their way to permanent legal residency and eventually citizenship. 

We support the President’s call for passage of a comprehensive immigration bill as opposed to the enforcement only approach taken by the House of Representatives. 

We agree that we cannot build a unified country by inciting people to anger, or playing on anyone's fears, or exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain. We must always remember that real lives will be affected by our debates and decisions, and that every human being has dignity and value no matter what their citizenship papers say. 

Overall, we look forward to the debate in the weeks ahead and will stand at the ready to provide as much information to communities across the country as possible.  LULAC will be holding a series of immigration forums in states across the country throughout the summer, as well as registering voters, engaging in voter training and Get out the Vote activities to ensure that the Latino voice is heard widely on November 7th.

The League of the United Latin American Citizen (www.lulac.org) advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

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