Immigration News: January, 2005 - Volume 12

Bush, Congress, States

After his re-election in November 2004, President Bush promised to pursue an aggressive "ownership society" agenda of Social Security privatization, new tax breaks for savings and investment, and additional incentives for home ownership. By 2018, Social Security benefit payments are projected to exceed Social Security taxes collected; two active workers will be contributing for each benefit recipient. A person with average wages retiring at age 65 in 2005 gets an annual Social Security benefit of about $14,000, 42 percent of average earnings.

Bush did not mention migration when he laid out his plans for his second term, but during his year-end press conference on December 20, 2004 said: "it makes sense to allow the good-hearted people who are coming here to do jobs that Americans won't do a legal way to do so[sic]. And providing that legal avenue, it takes the pressure off the border...this is not automatic citizenship. The American people must understand that, that if somebody who is here working wants to be a citizen, they can get in line like those who have been here legally and have been working to become a citizenship [sic] in a legal manner."

Bush aides said that he would introduce or support a bill to implement his January 2004 proposal to give an unlimited number of unauthorized foreigners who have found US jobs three-year renewable work permits. At the end of six years, Bush guest workers would have to leave the US unless their US employers sponsored them for immigrant visas or they found another way to remain.

During the third debate between George Bush and John Kerry in Arizona, the moderator said he received more email about immigration than any other topic, and asked the candidates what they would do about unauthorized immigration. Bush repeated his January 2004 pledge to grant renewable three-year work permits to unauthorized workers with US jobs and to create a new guest worker program, while Kerry endorsed an earned legalization program for at least some of the unauthorized foreigners in the US.

Bush said: "I believe there ought to be a temporary worker card that allows a willing worker and a willing employer to mate up, so long as there's not an American willing to do that job, to join up in order to be able to fulfill the employers' needs." Kerry said: "We need a guest-worker program, but if it's all we have, it's not going to solve the problem." Kerry said the US must "toughen up our borders" and "crack down on illegal hiring." Kerry is the first Democratic candidate since Jimmy Carter to speak out in favor of employer sanctions.

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) were reportedly working on a bipartisan bill for comprehensive immigration reform in December 2004. Bush is expected to mention immigration reform in his inauguration address on January 20, 2005, and the McCain-Kennedy bill is expected to try to deal with Bush's opposition to "amnesty" and the Democrats opposition to a "guest worker only" option for unauthorized foreigners in the US.

Nine of the 15 secretaries in the Bush cabinet were replaced. Cuban immigrant Carlos M. Gutierrez, CEO of the Kellogg Company, was nominated to be commerce secretary, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to be Attorney General, and former New York City police commissioner Bernard B. Kerik was nominated to be DHS secretary. However, Kerik soon withdrew when it was reported that he failed to pay taxes for a domestic worker who may have been illegally in the US. In 2001, Linda Chavez withdrew as Bush's first nominee for labor secretary after it was learned she had housed an illegal migrant, and Zoe Baird withdrew as Clinton's attorney general nominee after it became known that she had employed an illegal immigrant couple and failed to pay Social Security taxes.

Votes. Some eight million of the 35 million Hispanic US residents were registered to vote in 2004, and 7.5 million cast ballots; there were a total of 115 million ballots for president. There were 10.7 million adult immigrant US citizens in 2000; 6.2 million registered to vote and 5.4 million cast ballots. About 60 percent of the foreign-born citizens and 70 percent of the US-born were registered to vote in 2000.

President Bush won 40 to 45 percent of Latino votes (3.4 million of his 55 million votes), about the same as President Reagan in 1984, and up from 37 percent in 2000. Exit polls suggested that Bush's opposition to gay marriage won him support among Latino men. Two Hispanics were elected to the US Senate, Democrat Ken Salazar in Colorado and Republican Mel Martinez in Florida. Hispanics are 45 percent of residents in New Mexico, and cast 34 percent of the votes; 37 percent of residents in Texas, and cast 22 percent of votes; and 33 percent in California, where they cast 16 percent of votes.

Congress. HR 10, the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act, signed into law in December 2004, included a series of immigration-related provisions, including the requirement that foreigners be legally present in the US to be issued driver's licenses and prohibiting the recognition of consular identification cards by federal agencies. The comparable Senate bill did not include these immigration provisions, and the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission sent a letter to House-Senate conferees saying "We believe strongly that this bill is not the right occasion for tackling controversial immigration and law enforcement issues that go well beyond the commission's recommendations."

Most of the House immigration provisions were dropped in conference committee, but the 9/11 law includes a provision to increase the number of Border Patrol agents by 2,000 a year for five years, doubling the Border Patrol, and adds 40,000 detention beds. DHS will have to establish minimum standards for issuing state driver's licenses, including on them machine-readable data that federal officials could demand at airports. However, states could continue to determine who can get licenses and ID cards.

In December 2004, there were 11 states that did not require "lawful presence" to obtain driver's licenses; the others required a "lawful presence" or took other steps to deny licenses to unauthorized foreigners. In California, an estimated two million unauthorized foreigners are driving without licenses. The driver's license issue divides those who say that, for public safety, all drivers should have licenses so that they can prove they know the rules of the road and can get car insurance. Opponents say that driver's licenses are a privilege that should be reserved for legal residents, and that issuing them to illegal migrants poses national security risks.

The deliberations on the intelligence law showed that dozens of House Republicans want to deal with unauthorized migration by putting enforcement first. In any 2005 immigration legislation, their concerns are likely to play a major role, with completion of a border fence in San Diego, drivers' licenses and tightening asylum standards likely to be among the first issues tackled. The House's 71-member Immigration Reform Caucus promises to ensure that enforcement is the top priority.

Two bills with broad support were not approved. The DREAM Act, with 47 Senate and 134 House co-sponsors, would have given conditional permanent residence status to children who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16, had lived in the country for five years, graduated from high school or obtained a U.S. GED certificate and were of good moral character. AgJOBS, with 63 Senate and 104 House cosponsors, would have legalized the status of some unauthorized farm workers, and made it easier for farm employers to obtain legal guest workers.

States. Arizona voters in November 2004 approved Proposition 200 (The Arizona Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, or Protect Arizona Now) on a 56-44 percent vote. Proposition 200 requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and seeks to deny illegal migrants public benefits that are not federally mandated. State workers are required to report to DHS any illegal migrants seeking welfare services, or face a possible four-month jail sentence.

No major elected officials in Arizona supported Proposition 200, and opponents sued to block its implementation. The Mexican Foreign Ministry issued a statement regretting "that the proposition passed and expresses its complete opposition to the measure, as it discriminates against individuals based on their ethnic profile and limits their access to basic health and education services," the ministry said in a written statement.

Arizona's attorney general ruled that Prop 200 applied only to some state-funded welfare programs, thus exempting food stamps and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families because they are federally required. However, a federal judge lifted his injunction in December 2004, allowing the Arizona Department of Economic Security to begin implementing Prop 200; if the DES discovers that an applicant for benefits is unauthorized, the foreigner is reported.

Many of the supporters of Prop 200 were in retirement communities, where many residents are opposed to paying public benefits to unauthorized migrants. The Center for Immigration Studies updated a 1997 National Research Council study to conclude that households headed by unauthorized foreigners paid $16 billion in federal taxes and used services costing $26 billion; most of the services are used by US-born and thus US citizen residents of immigrant-headed households.

According to CIS, households headed by unauthorized foreigners use an average $7,500 a year in federal services, compared to $15,000 a year for households headed by US-born persons, but pay only a quarter as much as the $15,000 a year in taxes paid by households with US-born head of households.

The Save Ellis Island Foundation is launching a drive for funds to restore the entire 27-acre site; some 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954; 100 million Americans have an ancestor who passed through Ellis Island. The National Park Service administers the site, often called the "Island of Hope, Island of Tears," reflecting the fear of being rejected. However, 98 percent of those who arrived at Ellis Island were admitted as immigrants within five to six hours of their arrival.

Business. Southern California has about five million Spanish-speaking residents, most from Mexico. However, most of the largest enterprises selling "Mexican goods and culture" in the Los Angeles-area are owned by Koreans, Lebanese, Iranians, Israelis and nonimmigrant English speakers. La Curacao, the largest Southern California department store aimed entirely at Latino immigrants, is owned by Israeli immigrants, and virtually all the water stores in Southern California are owned by Korean and Lebanese immigrants. Only two nationally known Mexican retailers - Gigante supermarkets and Famsa furniture - have opened stores in southern California.

Plaza Mexico, on Long Beach Boulevard and the 105 Freeway in Lynwood, attempts to replicate Monte Alban, the ancient Indian ruins in Oaxaca, with shops that have the bold colors of a typical provincial town. There is a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe and the clock tower replicates the facade of the government palace in Guadalajara. Plaza Mexico was developed by a Korean, who said that most Mexicans want to earn several hundred dollars and send some of it home, not take risks with US businesses.

California Hispanic women are having fewer children: their fertility dropped from 3.4 in 1990 to 2.6 in 2003, about the same as the US rate for Hispanic women. US-born Latinas have a lower fertility rate (2.2) than immigrant Latinas (3.1) in California, so any slowing of immigration will slow the state's population growth.

In 1998, some 61 percent of California voters approved Proposition 227, which aimed to eliminate most bilingual education programs. The first statewide evaluation of Proposition 227 found that the number of English-learners receiving bilingual instruction fell from 29 percent in 1997-98 to 11 percent in 2001-02, and that there are no significant differences in performance of English learners enrolled in bilingual education and those enrolled in intensive English classes.

Most K-12 schools in California have a two-week break at Christmas. However, many Mexican immigrant families take their children to Mexico for a month in mid-December, not returning until mid-January. In Santa Ana, where over 90 percent of students are Hispanic, school begins earlier in August to allow for a one month winter break. Other schools have not changed their schedules, but urge immigrant parents to cut short their winter trips to Mexico.

English. An analysis of census data found that 72 percent of Hispanic children who were third-generation or later spoke English exclusively, suggesting widespread assimilation as immigrants and their descendants move to English as they seek success in the American mainstream. Richard Alba, director of the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at SUNY-Albany, says that American society is not as fractured along ethnic and cultural lines as some think, but noted that larger percentages of Hispanics maintained bilingualism in the third generation than did their earlier European counterparts.

Michael A. Fletcher, "Bush Immigration Plan Meets GOP Opposition," Washington Post, January 2, 2005. Billy House, "Migrant reform bill in works," Arizona Republic, December 25, 2004. Joel Rubin, "Latinos' Yule Trips and Schools," Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2004. Rachel L. Swarns, "Children of Hispanic Immigrants Continue to Favor English, Study of Census Finds," New York Times, December 8, 2004. Sam Quinones, "Non-Latinos Mine Southland's Mexican Market," Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2004.