Mass protest rallies continue across the US in resistance to a controversial draft immigration bill, reports Pierre Loza As the United States Senate begins its two-week Spring recess, the delay of a controversial immigration bill that was set to be approved last week is seen by rights groups as a development in their favour. By force of weeks of protests across the US by a total of up to 1.5 million migrants and sympathisers, it seems as though proponents of the bill have started to respond to resounding pressure, and that decision-makers in the US will have to think more carefully about draft legislation that would criminalise illegal immigration. Sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner and approved last year by the House, the bill has sparked rampant protests across the US especially from Latino groups. In its original form the bill, which would have classed the US's 11 million illegal immigrants as felons, was also set to extend a 1,100-km fence across the US-Mexican border. "When this bill was being debated it was like watching the right wing arguing against the ultra right wing," said Berta Joubert of the International Action Centre, an immigrants' rights group in Philadelphia. Joubert believes that a growing conservative culture in the US is bearing fruit in the form of more prevalent racism and xenophobia. "To me, this fence they want to build goes back to the same idea as Apartheid," Joubert said. US border patrol officers arrested 580,000 border crossers last year alone. Joubert acknowledges that other bills such as the one proposed by Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts are more progressive. "Although the Kennedy bill seems less vicious, it still falls short of granting immigrants their full rights," Joubert said. Boston-based immigration lawyer Joseph O'Neil believes that although the US must not close its doors to hardworking immigrants, the protests may have rubbed some people the wrong way. "I was surprised to see that in the protests people were carrying flags from different countries. I would have liked to see more people waving the American flag," he said. As the House and Senate work towards a compromise, O'Neil would like to see legislation which would not penalise undocumented residents who have been trying to apply for citizenship through the proper legal channels. "There are plenty of highly-skilled immigrants, people with PhDs who would be of great service to the US economy. I think they should become legal permanent residents," he said. He also views the proposed fence across the Mexican border as ineffective. "Even if you build a wall worth billions of dollars they will find a way and they will get across it," said O'Neil. Some estimate that as many as 4,000 people have died trying to cross the US-Mexican border into the Arizona desert since 1994. A new bill proposed by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans will tone down the proposed law considerably by removing the prospect of criminal penalties on illegal residents. The new legislation must however be passed by the full Senate, and differences with the House must be reconciled before it can be signed into law by President George W Bush. An additional amendment adopted by the Senate Judiciary Committee also prevents the prosecution of individuals, churches and charitable groups for providing aid to undocumented immigrants, something the House previously criminalised. With an aim of bolstering border protection, the committee also approved a doubling of border control agents with a current capacity of 1,360 over the next six years. "I think that our demonstrations have played a role in changing the rhetoric in the Senate," says Alejandro Ahumada of the 25 March Coalition, whose leaders participated in fomenting the plurious massive protests that took unprecedented numbers of migrants and supporters out to the streets of Los Angeles to protest. "The massive movement across the Mexican border is a result of American foreign policy. The US and Europe have played a major role in entrenching poverty in Latin America. And when these poor and displaced people come to America they want to turn them into criminals," Ahumada said. He is also critical of the guest worker programme backed by Bush. "This programme is simply an exploitation of immigrant labour. They want to bring immigrants here for a couple of years, give them petty wages and then send them back home to Mexico," he said. The steady flow of undocumented immigration across the Mexican border has also spurred the rise of vigilante groups such as the Minutemen, a group of paramilitary volunteers bearing rifles and night-vision goggles. Immigrant rights groups believe the Minutemen represent a coalition of racist supremacist groups from across the country. "People who have been lucky enough to cross the border told many tales of physical torture from such vigilantes. Some came out of the experience with rope marks from lynching attempts," Ahumada said.
