Gutierrez unveils immigration "reform" bill principles at Washington DC rally (RI4A, CHC,NCIC,religious leaders)

Earlier today, supporters of comprehensive immigration reform held a rally in Washington DC. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force) laid out outlines of a bill he'll supposedly be introducing later this year. The specifics aren't known but it will be very lax and probably won't include the "symbolic gestures" from the bill he co-authored with Jeff Flake. Others attending were Nydia Velazquez (Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus) and Mike Honda (Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus).

Per Ian Urbina of the New York Times (link):

Tuesday’s event was sponsored by various immigrant advocacy groups, including the Reform Immigration For America campaign, the National Capital Immigration Coalition, and Families United/Familias Unidas. It attracted convoys of buses, vans and cars carrying more than 3,000 protesters from at least 17 states.

There was a prayer vigil but any religious leaders involved aren't known yet. Per this, Gutierrez' remarks included this:

"Saying immigration is a priority for this Administration or this Congress is not the same as seeing tangible action, and the longer we wait, the more every single piece of legislation we debate will be obstructed by our failure to pass comprehensive reform... We need a bill that says if you come here to hurt our communities, we will not support you; but if you are here to work hard and to make a better life for your family, you will have the opportunity to earn your citizenship. We need a law that says it is un-American for a mother to be torn from her child, and it is unacceptable to undermine our workforce by driving the most vulnerable among us further into the shadows."

See immigration vulnerable and living in the shadows for part of the reason he's wrong. Note also that any reform would of necessity involve slapdash background checks, making it difficult to determine whether someone is "here to hurt our communities". Note also that the "communities" bit may be a code word, as it is in many other cases. Note also that Gutierrez is falsely attributing blame for family separations to our laws rather than to those who put themselves in those situations; he is in effect calling our perfectly valid laws "un-American". Gutierrez is a corrupt buffoon who puts his own interest in pan-Hispanic racial power ahead of what's best for the U.S.

Tue, 10/13/2009 - 12:45 · · Importance: 5