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Kennedy calls immigration law ‘national scandal’

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

The timing of Kennedy’s statement, made to immigration reform advocates in Washington last week, is particularly significant.
Kennedy is a co-sponsor of a bill in Congress that would offer a chance of permanent legal residence to large numbers of undocumented farm workers.
Kennedy, it is understood, is also working with fellow senators from both sides of the aisle on a “nation neutral” bill that will attempt to address the plight of the undocumented no matter what their line of work.
Speaking last week to participants in the Immigrant Freedom Rally as it passed through Washington, D.C., Kennedy, who has been in the front line of the immigration law debate since the mid-1960s, described the rally participants as “the new freedom riders for the new century,” a reference to civil rights campaigners from that same decade.
Kennedy’s words to the immigrant campaigners, and his condemnation of the present state of immigration law, is reviving hopes that Congress is poised to address the plight of America’s undocumented immigrants, thousands of Irish nationals among them.
“Just as the courageous freedom riders of the past shamed the nation and exposed the injustice and cruelty of segregation, so each of you today has begun a courageous new mission to expose the injustice and cruelty of America’s immigration policy,” Kennedy said during his meeting with rally participants, who reached the end of their two-week, cross-country journey last weekend in Flushing, Queens.
“Throughout America’s history, immigrants have been an indispensable part of our heritage and our strength,” Kennedy said. “It’s unacceptable that literally millions of hard-working immigrants today are forced to live in constant fear of deportation and are constant targets of abuse and brutal exploitation by unscrupulous employers who care more about their profits than about fundamental human rights.
Kennedy went to describe the immigration law “status quo” as a “national scandal.”
Current immigration laws, he said, are unjust and outdated. “You and your families deserve the right to work here and become citizens,” he said.
Kennedy has been at the center of renewed hopes for immigration reform since last year when he rowed in behind a bill that was intended to revive immigration provision 245i, the measure that would have allowed the undocumented to secure legal status without having to first leave the U.S.
That effort went by the wayside, but, in more recent months, Kennedy has been speaking out again on the matter of relief for the undocumented in the form of an “earned adjustment” process.
“Today, an estimated 8 million people live in the U.S. without legal documents. Many of them are Irish. We need to enact legislation that will create a fair, uniform set of procedures to legalize qualified immigrants. Long-time, hard-working residents should be provided the opportunity to become permanent members of our community,” Kennedy said after a meeting with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen in July.
Kennedy last week co-sponsored a bill, the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act, that is aimed at improving the lot of immigrant farm workers by making it easier for migrant farm laborers to secure permanent legal residence. At first glance, the agricultural bill would appear to be of little relevance to the undocumented Irish, most of whom work in America’s cities. But Kennedy strongly hinted that the current effort to secure change would not end in America’s farm fields.
“Other hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding immigrants deserve help too. It is time to reaffirm our nation’s commitment to fundamental fairness,” Kennedy said in a statement pledging support for the agricultural bill.
The farm workers bill is being seen by immigration policy observers as a potential first step and a possible basis for further bipartisan legislation covering a broader spectrum of undocumented workers. Such broader legislation is on track to take the form of a bill by the end of this year, a well-informed source in Washington said.
The farm workers bill provides for temporary legal status based on a specified minimum time already worked in the U.S. It further allows for permanent resident status should the individual continue to work in the U.S. until a specified time in the future.
During the period of temporary resident status, the individual farm worker would be able to legally work and travel abroad and reenter the U.S.
The two-step process leading to permanent residence in the agricultural bill hints at the possible formula for offering a chance at permanent residence for the broader undocumented population.
The agricultural bill’s primary sponsor is Sen. Larry Craig, a conservative Republican from Idaho who also happens to be a farm owner. Kennedy, one the most liberal members of the Senate, is listed as one of 23 co-sponsors, as is the GOP’s John McCain.

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