Advocates say they won't give up on reform

By: Angelica Herrera and Erin DostalOn June 28, immigration bill S. 1639 died in the U.S. Senate, coming up seven votes short of the 60 needed to overcome the filibuster that had stalled the bill for weeks.

The bill would have given a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, created a new guest-worker program, toughened border enforcement and cracked down on employers hiring undocumented immigrants.

Although the consensus among observers is that this version of the bill appears beyond resurrection, immigration advocates in Chicago say they are far from giving up. To keep the issue on the table, they are pursuing a variety of strategies, including putting pressure on legislators by displaying the potential clout of a politically active Latino community.

At a June 28 news conference at Casa Michoacán in the Pilsen neighborhood, Rosi Carrasco, program coordinator for the Latino Organization of the Southwest, emphasized the need to keep politicians talking about the issue.

“The 12 million will be living in this country regardless of what the congressmen think … and we are going to continue organizing ourselves,” Carrasco said. “We are going to continue organizing our community until we get an immigration reform that is fair and human.”

Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said in an interview that he doesn’t think immigrants should have to wait until the 2008 presidential election to see changes in immigration policy.

“We’re pushing [Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy] Pelosi (D-Calif.) to try and move something that is at least a solution in the House this year,” he said. “We are also pushing the presidential candidates so that there’s going to be action on this in their first year, first term.”

Hoyt added that he thinks the key to fundamental change is getting people to understand the real reason he thinks the Senate bill failed: racism.

“The people who are opposing the bill say they’re against illegals, but what’s driving that is they are against Mexicans,” he said. “Part of what we’re going to do is work to show the country just how ugly the hatred underneath the immigrant movement actually is.”

In order to publicize the depth of this hatred, the coalition is tracking responses to newspaper articles in an effort to expose how many anti-immigrant organizations are orchestrated by a handful of individuals known for their racist views.

Other organizations, like Centro Sin Fronteras, are working with immigrantrights organizations across the country to exert the full power of the Latino community.

Centro Sin Fronteras has organized sit-ins at several Congressmen’s offices, including U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s, to force them to continue to pay attention to the issue of immigration, said Emma Lozano, the group’s executive director. In heavily Latino-populated areas like north suburban Waukegan, it has also set up kiosks in stores so that “wherever you go, you can register to vote,” and organized citizenship drives.

Refusing to let this issue fall by the wayside is key, especially at this time when there is a “wave of hysteria against immigrants,” Lozano said.

“It’s not fair … that [politicians] still want the [Latino] vote when they couldn’t resolve this issue,” she said. “Besides this issue and the war, what do they have to deal with? You’re going to leave 12 million people hanging?”