Immigration bill impacts families

When 48-year-old Julio Escobar left El Salvador eight years ago, his son, Rene, was one day old. Escobar’s journey to the United States took him through Guatemala, then Belize, and then Mexico, where he stayed for a total of 14 months waiting to enter the United States.
He tried four times to cross the border into Arizona, and each time he was caught and deported back. “My dream is always to come to the United States,” Escobar said.
Escobar finally managed to pass through the border with a green card, passed back to him through another immigrant. He came to New York and applied for his temporary worker card, which he has had renewed each time it has expired. His current card, which allows him to work as a construction worker in Long Island and Queens, runs out in September 2007.
Although he has temporary legal working status and a New York State driver’s license, Escobar cannot return to El Salvador because his card will not permit him reentry into the United States. Therefore, Escobar has not seen any of his three children, now 25, 22, and 8, nor his two new grandchildren, since he left his home country.
“I see him only in pictures,” Escobar said of his youngest. He sends his family back home $300 each month, sometimes more to pay for Rene’s schooling.
Escobar hopes to become a citizen of the United States, so that he can live and work here, but also travel back to his homeland to see his family.
If a new immigration bill, which as written would create a guest worker program, strengthen border security, and raise penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers, passes through Congress, Escobar’s legal status, unlike that of an estimated 12 million immigrants, will remain much the same.
The bill would give immediate work authorization to immigrants, like Escobar, who entered the country before January 1, 2007. Many of these immigrants are completely undocumented.
In addition, the head of every household would be required to return to their homeland within eight years of legislation going into effect, but these immigrants would be guaranteed the right to come back to the United States, according to the new bill.
Application fees to become a temporary worker through the “Z” visa program could vary because immigrants would have to pay a fee as well as penalties of up to $5,000 per person. These immigrants would also be put on a path to permanent residency, which would be available down the road.
However, before this path to residency is laid out, border security - including a new perimeter fence and double the number of Border Patrol agents - must be in place. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff estimated the amount of time needed to implement this plan would be 18 months.
Once this enforcement provision is in place, a guest worker program for new immigrants would also begin - with 400,000 work visas granted each year for two-year stays. After two years, the workers would be forced to return to their home country for one year, then allowed to return to the United States for another two-year stint. These guest workers would be allowed to come back three times.
The U.S. Senate has already put off debate on the 380-page bill, which is three months in the works, until after the Memorial Day weekend. If passed by the Senate, the bill would then face review by the House of Representatives. President George Bush has said that he is “anxious” to pass a bill reforming immigration in the country.
Although the bill was introduced with bipartisan support, both sides - Democrats and Republicans - have already said that changes are needed.
Conservative politicians have condemned the plan for offering “amnesty” to immigrants who entered the country illegally. Republican Senators have drafted amendments to reduce the number of immigrants who are offered immediate, legal status and to make English the official language of the United States, according to published reports.
In turn, liberal politicians are countering with amendments to reduce the guest worker program, which they believe will create a new, lower social class of immigrants.
“That’s a recipe for creating a permanent underclass of inferior population here, people with fewer rights than everyone else,” said Norman Eng, a lawyer for the New York Immigration Coalition.
Other immigration groups have blasted the bill for what they have called a merit-based point system that would be put in place for immigrants to get a green card - giving more points to job skills and less to family - and aspects of the bill that require immigrants to return to their homeland, in order to come back to the United States.
“A lot of people have been here nine, 10, even 30 years. That [the new bill] will give them a chance to have permanent residency,” said Eduardo Barahona, a Board Member of the Centro Hispano “Cuzcatlan” in Jamaica. “The other concern is that the fines and the fees for the applications will be too high … Instead of improving the situation for immigrants, we could make something worse.”