Mesa Legend - News - Future of illegals still on the fence with lawmakers

Future of illegals still on the fence with lawmakers - MEChA calls for student action
Jordan Currier
Mesa Legend
Pressure is mounting on elected officials as a new bill promising to reform America’s crippled immigration policy has yet to take shape.

In May the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would ensure a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for up to five years. The bill would also set-up a guest-worker program, allowing immigrants to flee the unemployment crisis in Mexico and legally work in the U.S.

A joint House-Senate bill has yet to emerge, and Arizona’s unique immigration issues will be hotly contested during this November’s governor race.
Nearly 12 million illegal immigrants are residing in the U.S and an estimated 500,000 of them live in Arizona.

“If they want to cross the border and start a new life and make things happen for their families, I don’t see why not,” said Steven Miranda, MEChA secretary. “A majority of the illegal immigrants I see are always working. I don’t understand why people say that we’re taking (American’s) jobs. We’re doing the jobs that people don’t want to do.”

Most MEChA students interviewed advocate a guest-worker program, something President Bush supports.

But Brian Dille, MCC political science instructor, fears that a guest-worker program could relegate a group of people to a permanent underclass.

“I’m a ‘ya’ll come’ kind of guy,” Dille said. “I think that immigrants are the strength of America.”

Dille believes that House and Senate bills attempting to reform immigration policy are not comprehensive, and that the issue is too grave to be moved to the backburner.

“One of the big disappointments politically this year is that congress had promised to have comprehensive reform and they could not compromise.”

The result, he says, are “partial, for-show-only measures because it’s an election season.”

“There’s a lot of emotion involved,” Dille said of the political wrangling over adopting a complete immigration bill.

Illegal immigration will be a major eletion issue for Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano and Republican opponent Len Munsil.

Munsil argues that Napolitano hasn’t sufficiently addressed the issue during her tenure as Governor and isn’t taking steps to strengthen security along Arizona’s 2,000 mile-long border with Mexico.

Napolitano’s campaign claims that she has been “a national leader in addressing illegal immigration,” citing 600 illegal immigration cases she prosecuted as U.S. Attorney.

If elected, Munsil promises the construction of more fencing and the use of radar technology and more national guard to fortify the border.

Earlier this month the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill written by Republicans to construct 700 miles of additional fencing along the border.

“The role of any government is to secure its citizens and secure its borders,” said Mike Stone, president of MCC’s chapter of College Republicans.

Stone believes that Munsil’s plan to secure the border, and the newly-approved fencing, could curtail drug and human trafficking and weapons smuggling.

“If you don’t control your own borders, you cannot control your own destiny,” Stone said. “This is not just an immigration issue with the borders, this is a security issue.”

“I think that’s a waste of money, time and man-power,” MCC student Jamie Cody said of the additional fencing to be built at the border.

“I think that if we put up physical barriers, that’s sending them the wrong message.”

According to Dille, the current limit is 700,000 to a million people a year.

Dille also believes that with proper documentation anyone should be allowed in the country, provided that a more complete national database is created to track criminals crossing the border.

“If normal economic immigrants have a realistic way to get here legally, then the only people who are sneaking across the border are bad guys,” he said.

Another factor contributing to the tides of illegal immigrants coming to Arizona may be the inequitable distribution of Mexico’s resources, Dille says.

“The inequality (in Mexico) is still profound,” he said. “Mexico needs to better share the wealth that Mexico has.”

Juanita Tarango, faculty adviser to MEChA, wants her club to be a vehicle for getting students educated about political issues that directly affect the Hispanic community.

She also wants the members of MEChA to vote in November, although MEChA has yet to officially endorse a candidate for governor.

“As a Latino community we really need to start voting so that everyone is represented. It all boils down to who we are putting into office,” Tarango said.
“People on either side of this issue can’t feel afraid to voice their opinions,” Dille said.

“Because if they are afraid they’re going to be labeled as un-American on one side or racist xenophobe on the other, then you can’t really get at what the core issues are.”