Oh, NOW people want to talk about H.R. 4437?

[tjwash]

I started a discussion on this over a month ago right after hr4437 passed through Congress on the way to the senate. It was the only one of its kind, and to be honest, I got a good number of positive responses, and very few negative trollish ones like I am seeing on the boards here at present. What a pity. I had no idea that there were so many xenophobic bigots here at DU.

I don’t want to digress though.

So what happened? And more importantly, why did everyone wait until now, when it has reached the point to where it is going to pretty much fly through the Republican dominated Senate before deciding to get off of their rear ends to do anything about it?


Here is the letter to the editor I wrote on the subject the end of January, and it is all I have to say on the matter:

A new bill was recently passed through Congress on Dec. 17th of 2005: H.R. 4437 The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. It was sponsored by James Sensenbrenner, and passed congress on the way to the senate with 92 percent of Republicans for, and 82 percent of Democrats against.

In a nutshell, the law states that any church or non-profit organization is guilty of committing a federal offense, if they give any assistance whatsoever to illegal immigrants. It makes no difference if the organization in question, has any knowledge the status of the person they are helping or not. The penalties include fines, jail time, and property seizure.

The big problems with the law, are, that it does nothing to strengthen the borders, and curb the flow of illegal immigration. It punishes non-profit social assistance organizations, and churches that may be feeding, or providing shelter to illegal aliens, even though they may not know that they are illegal. There is, however, nothing in the law that punishes the for-profit businesses that continue to exploit illegal migrant labor, such as Farms, Hotels, or Restaurants, doing absolutely nothing to stop these and other industries, which are dependant upon the pool of virtual slave labor that illegal immigration has become for them.

Say a social worker, is working at their job in a domestic violence shelter. A woman shows up there, beaten, and bloody, with a child in tow, and her abusive boyfriend driving around looking for her. She places this woman in a Victims of Domestic Violence center. It turns out later that this woman produced a false ID. They can throw the social worker in jail, and the shelter can get fined, and, if they happen to be funded by HUD, or other government agencies, will get their funding pulled.

And what of the various other scenarios that can be made out. Someone shows up to a free clinic with a case of pneumonia. If they can't produce an ID, and verify you are a citizen, are they to be told to go out in the street and slowly suffocate, even though the Civil Rights Act states that public services cannot be denied on the basis of national origin? Or maybe someone comes to a shelter that’s starving, or its 10 degrees below zero outside and they need assistance. If they can't produce “papers” are they simply to just find a nice alley to crawl into and die? The law also turns any relative, employer, co-worker, or friend of who helps an undocumented migrant into an "alien smuggler" and a felon, punishable by imprisonment. This can be for doing something as innocuous as driving a neighbor to the grocery store.

The ones that get fined and punished because of this new law, besides the unfortunate souls that come here to toil in our fields, for low wages, and no benefits are also going to be people who have dedicated their lives to helping out others in need that are less fortunate than us. Most unfortunate people that happen to need help are not what we would consider the cream of our society. And yes, illegal immigrants happen to be part of that society. Unfortunately, in our society as well, are people that think that it’s a horrible and un-American act, to help out someone out that everyone else despises. Hell, it almost sounds like something that Jesus Christ would have actually done.

If passed into law, it will be a disaster. It helps no one, and only adds to the mountains of bureaucracy that Not For Profit social assistance organizations already have to endure. It opens the door for selective enforcement, to be used for purposes of ethnic and political intimidation. Like it or not, the reality is, that there are people here illegally. The scariest ramifications of this law, is that it also gives the feds license to check our “papers” anytime they want. I don't know about any of you out there, but the thoughts of a Gestapo asking for “your papers please” and doing it in the name of “the homeland” sends a cold chill down my spine.

[rpannier]

1. While I like most of your letter

I have to say your depiction of people who do not share your views on the immigration issue as "xenophobic bigots" is pretty disturbing and unfair.

[acmavm]

2. And I suppose you think everyone here, especially us xenophobic

bigots, give a shit what you think?

[bryant69]

3. Your not sensitive are you?

I mean if I slip, and call you . . . well those words, will you be cool about it?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[leftstreet]

4. Do you understand this hr4437 provision?

I saw this in a Seattle Times article:

Mandatory detention for non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports or at land and sea borders. Illegal presence in the country made a felony.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002894074_immig28.html

Then I checked the actual hr4437 legislation:

Requires that the Secretary place an alien (other than from Mexico or Canada) who has not been admitted or paroled into expedited removal if apprehended within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of unauthorized entry.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR04437:@@@D&summ2=m&

I don't understand that stipulation.
Who are they targeting?