Practical Advice on the President's immigration proposal

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues.

As a follow-up to the posting by Tina Castanares of FJF's response to the

President's recent immigration proposal I am posting some advice provided by

Greg Schell. The bottom line is that there is not much detail related to the

President's proposal nor is there any timeline for introducing legislation. Greg

provides practical advise that should be shared with your patients should they

ask about moving forward at this time.

BELOW IS THE VIEW OF THE BUSH PLAN FROM GREG SCHELL, FARM WORKER LAWYER IN

FLORIDA :

A message from Greg Schell, the farmworker advocate/attorney:

By now, most people have heard that the Bush Administration has

announced its immigration proposal. From all indications, this

proposal is not good news for undocumented workers.

The president's plan does not give green cards to undocumented

workers; it simply transforms them all into H-2A or H-2B workers,

with few legal protections. The only path to legalization for

undocumented workers under the President's bill is through a

relative petition (for example, marriage to a U.S. citizen).

There is little or no chance of the Bush plan passing anytime soon.

What it does do is put a real damper on the AgJOBS farmworker

legalization bill. Our current sense is that AgJOBS may well be

dead, as everyone instead focuses on the president's bill. The

restrictionist opponents of immigration reform in the House, who

have been the main roadblocks to AgJOBS, now have new ammunition for

opposing AgJOBS. They can simply say that they're waiting for the

details of the President's comprehensive immigration reform, rather

than moving on a bill narrowly tailored to address the specific

problems of undocumented farmworkers.

If farmworkers contact you, they should be told that there is no

bill anywhere near passage at the present time, so people should not

pay lawyers money for filling out papers, etc. Also, no one should

approach INS asking for an application, etc. For the foreseeable

future, it looks like the status quo will be in place for a good

long time.

Ruiz

Assistant Director Systems Development and Policy Administration

Migrant Health Coordinator

National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc.

7200 Wisconsin Avenue Suite 210

Bethesda, MD 20814

(301) 347-0442

(301) 347-0459 FAX

(202) 365-0154 Cell Phone

jruiz@...

www.nachc.com

JOIN US!

NACHC's Policy and Issues Forum

March 23 - 26, 2004

Washington, DC

" Youth is the gift of nature but age is a work of art. "

- Garson Kanin