Andrew Friedman
Ted Kennedy’s not the one
Last Thursday, immigrants' rights advocates converged on Washington, DC to call on Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Amid cheering throngs of people, and waving American flags, speakers called for each of the rally's four core demands:
1) A path to citizenship for millions of hard-working immigrants here today and those who come in the future;
2) Keeping families together by reducing backlogs and ending deportations;
3) Protections for immigrant and U.S.-born workers; and
4) Strong protections of civil rights & civil liberties for all.
But let's be real. Turnout for the rally was weak. While hundreds of thousands of people were expected, not even ten thousand people showed up. Behind the weak showing lies real issues for the immigrants' rights movement. For one, let's examine the first plank of the rally's platform,
A path to citizenship for millions of hard-working immigrants...This sounds good, but it is a far cry from a call for legalization for all undocumented people in the United States.
One of the first speakers at the rally was Senator Kennedy, one of the main sponsors of the Senate's weak "compromise" immigration reform bill. Senator Kennedy spoke eloquently about the massive economic and cultural contribution of immigrants to our country and the importance of allowing immigrants to regularize their status in the country. So why is he willing to settle for an immigration reform bill that would leave millions of immigrant workers out of any legalization program? Why is he willing to compromise on basic civil rights and civil liberties?
It is time for the immigrants' rights movement to speak clearly and stick to our guns. Immigrants, and undocumented immigrants, make our country strong. Immigrants improve our economy, create jobs, make our cities safer, and enrich our culture. We need a legalization program that will bring everyone out of the shadows. We need to treat immigrants as a source of richness, not criminals. We need to get to work organizing our folks, and we need to do so by advocating comprehensive immigration reform, not deeply flawed half-measures. We need passionate and committed leaders and spokespeople, and we should only support Senator Kennedy, and other poltical heavies, when they really supports us and our demands.
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Posted at 9:08 AM, Sep 11, 2006 in
Immigration
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