The Voice - Student Newspaper

Obama opens immigration debate

By Luis Montes
Spanish Editor, The VOICE

Immigrants remain positive about the approval of a comprehensive immigration reform.

It might seem impossible for opposers to pass an immigration reform that would unite families and give immense opportunities for the less fortunate, but supporters remain hopeful.

It was recently announced by President Barack Obama's administration that Obama will open the immigration debate among legislators, business owners and worker unions. More and more organizations seem to like the idea of a comprehensive immigration reform, including the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) which is one of the largest worker unions.

AFL-CIO plans to be part of the negotiations that will start in May with Obama present. Joining AFL-CIO is labor rights organization, Change to Win (CTW), which is also supporting a comprehensive reform.

Alyssa Samora, an immigration paralegal for the Law Offices of Monika Sud-De Varaj, says that immigration debate is in its early stages and adds that it is a positive sign it will help people.

Some that opposed the immigration reform debate in 2007 argued that immigrants would take jobs away from legal American citizens.

Concerning jobs in America, Samora explains, "I don't think it is taking away from anybody. If you go out to the fields, you will see that probably 99.9% of the people out there are from other countries and are doing jobs that nobody wants to do."

AFL-CIO and CTW agree that undocumented workers are often underpaid and overworked. Exploitation is one of the main concerns for these two major labor organizations and that is the reason why they decided to join forces.

"When a reform comes, you have to wait for it to become law. Obviously, you want to help everybody in every situation, but that's not probable for that to happen. We all hope that the majority of people that need the help will get it," said Samora.

According to Samora, not everybody will qualify for legalization. There are three main areas where the government is putting an emphasis on: the time an immigrant has spent in the United States, the payment of taxes and previous criminal history.

Samora also explains that the government is contemplating on debating the previously failed "Dream Act," which would help undocumented students who successfully graduate from colleges and universites around the US to obtain a legal status.

"I would love to see them [Hispanic students] go out there and get an education, better themselves and get the high profile jobs that a lot of people deserve," concluded Samora.

Please send comments to lcmontes@gccvoice.com