en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:56:10 GMT 15 By Alejandro Capote
The voices of the angry and concerned immigration demonstrators who have marched across American cities in search of changes yell out: “Legalization now! We are not criminals, let us be heard.” The government commenced a new, more aggressive stance on illegal immigration. Agents have raided homes and businesses to round up illegal immigrants. Last month federal agents raided businesses in 7 cities around the country, arrested almost 200 undocumented workers and rounded up over 2300 illegal immigrants who had been previously ordered to leave the country, but had not. The Center of Immigration Studies estimates that half a million illegal immigrants enter the United States everyday. To help reduce the flow of illegal immigration across the Mexican border, the United States Congress approved building a 370 mile of fence across the border. “There has been a tenfold increase or more in the number of absconders [fugitive aliens] that we’ve rounded up and sent back. We’ve gone from one or two criminal cases five or six years ago to about 800 criminal cases this past year, because we are really pulling out all the stops,” Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff told ABC News. Many immigrants are concerned about the latest crackdowns. “I believe immigrants should be legalized, because they are human beings who have come here in search of a new life. I also believe that immigrants that should be legalized are those who work hard and have no criminal backgrounds,” said Amarilys Dominguez, a south Florida resident. During the time of protest, pressure on politicians to change immigration laws overwhelmed the nation’s capitol. The United States Congress began to take drastic immigration changes. They began addressing the problem by introducing bills in both House and Senate. Bill 1348 was introduced in the Senate. This bill asked for a Comprehensive Immigration reform for 2007. “This bill was to increase border and work site security, create temporary guest workers programs and employment verifications system, and produce a merit system for the future immigration efforts, but failed to come up for a vote,” said Florida Congresswoman Ilena Ros Lethinen. The House of Representatives and the US Senate could not come to an agreement and the bill died. Currently, in the House of Representative there is an immigration bill, which Florida congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is co-sponsoring. The bill is known as House Bill1645. This bill asks for security through regularized immigration and a vibrant economy act strives. “It requires detailed evaluation of information sharing, international and federal-state-local coordination, technology, anti smuggling efforts, and other border security initiatives,” said Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen. But things do not end here; another bill introduced in the house is the Dream Act, which Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is co-sponsoring. “The bill allows students to adjust to their status of legal permanent residency on a conditional basis upon requirement,” said Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. “For the majority of immigrants, becoming a United States citizen is the culmination of many years of hard work, and represents the realization of a dream shared by all immigrants who have added so much to our nation while in search of a better life for themselves and their families,” said Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen. The future of the immigrants living in the United States is still uncertain. Senator Bill Nelson said, for now the Senate has decided not to pass any immigration reform bills. ]]> Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:18:00 GMT