Illegal Immigration: H.R. 4437 and Guest Worker Program

Illegal Immigration: H.R. 4437 and Guest Worker Program

In today’s American citizens are facing a problem with illegal immigration, which has increased enormously in the past years. In 2005 the U.S. population included some 35 million immigrants, who constituted 12.1% of the population, up from 4.7% in 1970 (Immigration's Economic Impact). Due to this increase a narrow majority of the public 53% believes that illegal immigrants should be required to go home, compared with 40% who feel they should be granted some kind of legal status allowing them to stay in this country (America's Immigration Quandary). The U.S Congress is concerned about the problem and seeks for solutions which will benefit both, the country and immigrants. There have been many proposals which appeared to the public as very radical. One of these proposals is to deport eleven million illegal aliens which is technically impossible and difficult because they fuel the economy of the United States.

Currently, living in this country without authorization is a violation of civil immigration law more specific violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. As a legal Latino immigrant I have seen the struggles and prohibition that many illegal immigrants go through everyday. Most of them, including my family, came to this country for one reason, which is the opportunity to prosper. But unlike those illegal immigrants who can neither work nor drive legally, we have the privilege to be legal citizens. The life of an illegal immigrant is full of fear and uncertainty. Many of my family friends are single parents whose families are usually in their homeland and most of the income that they get from hard working hours goes to their families. They have cars but no license. They rent or buy houses which don’t belong to them because they have no social security number. This lack of identity is what contributes to the fear and uncertainty of not knowing when they will be deported.

On one side the Senate Judiciary Committee faced the rage of the public about the immigration legislation getting tougher of immigrants. In 2006, there were many demonstrations against the legislation. Tens of thousands of students walked out of school in California and other states. New York, Nevada, Florida, Illinois, California, Georgia, Colorado, Arizona, Louisiana and Wisconsin were among these states (The Boston Globe). There were people from all ages, majority of them from Hispanic The background, were waving American and some Mexican flags, and chanting slogans (International Herald Tribune). At the Capitol some of the demonstrators, including members of clergy, were wearing handcuffs as they were opposing the bill that would make it a felony to be in this country illegally and would make it crime to dispense aid to the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. This bill was known as Bill H.R.-4437 or The Border Protection Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. Bill H.R.-4437 was passed by The House of Representatives and sponsor by Republican Jim Sensenbrenner (The Library of Congress).The demonstrators also objected to legislation that would inflict new penalties on employers who hired illegal immigrants. Atlanta also saw the same events, many Hispanic students skipped school and immigrant-owned businesses were closed to gather at the state capitol to demonstrate the fight for the same

causes (Atlanta Journal Constitution).

Due to the boycotts and demonstrations against Bill H.R.-4437, President Bush proposed the Guest Worker Program (The New York Times). This is a program that permits U.S. employers to hire non-U.S. citizens as workers for less than three years after this period has passed they would be deported if they did not obtain a green card (The White House). The Guest Worker Program would have also allowed four hundred thousand foreigners to come to the United States to work each year and would put them on a path to citizenship, but it faced strong opposition and controversy (International Herald Tribute). In order to grant citizenship illegal immigrants would have to go through 11 years process in which they have to hold jobs, pass criminal background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes. This program would have created the largest guest worker program since 1960s, when 4.6 million Mexican workers came in to the country (Encyclopedia Britannica Online). The panel voted to eliminate the provisions that would criminalize immigrants for living here illegally and made an amendment to protect groups and individuals from being prosecuted for offering humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants. According to Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, “foreign workers would take over American jobs”. (International Herald Tribune) On the other hand James Smith, a senior economist at the Rand