Bush Immigration Plan Greeted With Joy, Skepticism
By Mary Beth Sheridan and Nurith C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 8, 2004; Page A09
The music blaring at Taqueria Tres Reyes II yesterday was jaunty Tejano, but the talk was pure Washington: the new plan by President Bush to grant temporary legal status to millions of illegal immigrants in the United States.
Felipe, a 19-year-old Mexican who sneaked across the border nearly four years ago, was imagining how his life would be transformed. "I could get my driver's license," he said, between bites of a beef taco at the restaurant in Prince George's County. "I could get a credit card. I could get a better job. I could go around free from fear. Just imagine!"
Illegal immigrants in the Washington area and across the country were buoyed by news of the "guest worker" proposal. But some analysts said that although the plan offers a short-term prize -- legal working papers -- it has long-term flaws.
The Bush proposal would allow illegal immigrants who hold jobs to apply for three-year guest worker visas, which could be extended for another three years. That would draw some workers out of the shadows and qualify them for many benefits.
But when their visas expired, many of the immigrants would be required to go home. Several analysts said that immigrants who had lived in this country for years would be unlikely to simply leave and that some might avoid the program altogether.
"Why should they show up, pay the fees that will be required of them, go through all the process . . . so, what, they can be thrown out of the country in six years?" asked Demetrios Papademetriou, co-director of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
If the program did attract broad participation, he said, it could create a time bomb: millions of guest workers whose visas would expire in a few years. If the government deported 500 such people a day, it would "take 50 years and tens of billions of dollars to get rid of them," he said. "It makes absolutely no sense."
The Bush proposal could undergo broad changes when it is considered by Congress, which has been trying to toughen the immigration system since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, not loosen it. And if a program is approved, it could be a few years before it is up and running, analysts said.
But at the Tres Reyes in Riverdale, where the walls are painted with Aztec temples and Christmas decorations adorn a large cactus, Mexican workers were planning a new future. Felipe and other undocumented immigrants, who would not give their full names because of their illegal status, were too focused on the advantages of working papers to worry that the program would not lead to permanent residency.
Isabel, a 19-year-old from the Mexican state of Chiapas who arrived three months ago, said she was most excited by the prospect of living without fear of deportation. "Now I'm scared all the time. I'm always looking around to see if there are police nearby."
Felipe, her boyfriend, nodded and described how he takes back roads that police do not patrol lest he be caught driving without a license and deported.
What was at stake, though, was more than convenience, he said. An apt student of English, Felipe rose quickly at a local fast-food franchise, where he makes $8 an hour as a cashier. When a manager's job paying $3 more an hour opened up several months ago, his bosses urged him to apply. Then he found out that managers are required to have a driver's license so they can attend regional meetings.
"I was so disappointed," Felipe said.
Those who work with immigrants in the Washington area said many undoubtedly would share the delight of the Mexicans gathered at the Tres Reyes. They praised Bush's plan for proposing to let workers make trips back to their homelands.
"They will rush to apply," said Silvia Alber, an immigration lawyer at the Spanish Catholic Center in the District's Mount Pleasant neighborhood. "Who doesn't want work authorization? They can have a Social Security number. They can get a driver's license."
And the lack of a mechanism to provide long-term residency? Some activists said authorities had approved amnesties in the past and might again.
"In three years, many things can change," said Jairo Sandoval, president of the United Colombian American Association. "It opens the field for new efforts and lobbying to better the situation."
But many analysts, activists and politicians said they were disturbed by some of the details made available yesterday. Some said they doubted the plan would succeed in curbing illegal immigration. Although White House officials said enforcement would be stepped up against companies that hire unregistered workers, Susan F. Martin, an immigration expert at Georgetown University, said she did not think that would be effective.
"Increased enforcement of a bad system isn't going to work," said Martin, who was executive director of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, a panel appointed by the president and congressional leadership in the early 1990s. She said employers would need a way to verify the legal status of job applicants and ensure they were not using fake documents.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said the plan seems to reward illegal immigrants and their employers. "It cheapens the citizenship of immigrants who have made extraordinary sacrifices to come here legally," he said in a statement.
The Bush plan emphasizes that guest workers should not receive any advantage over would-be immigrants who had followed the law. But the administration said temporary workers are welcome to apply for permanent residency, the first step toward citizenship, if they have an employer or relative to sponsor them under the current system. And it called for an increase in the number of people allowed to immigrate legally.
But few guest workers will be able to take advantage of such a possibility, analysts said. Only about 10,000 immigration visas are available each year for unskilled workers sponsored by U.S. businesses.
Just a few miles northeast of the Tres Reyes, the McDonald's in Langley Park was packed yesterday with Latino immigrants. But many were Salvadorans who were granted temporary visas after a hurricane devastated their country in 2001, and their reaction to Bush's plan was less enthusiastic.
A foreman at a construction company, Manuel de Jesus Arana, 36, has had six temporary visas since arriving in the United States at age 13. "If I had permanent residency, I'd do so many things: I'd start my own subcontracting company. I'd buy a house so I could have something to pass on to my children," he said. "But you can't do that when you know that at any moment you could suddenly become illegal again and get deported."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
