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House Debates Bill to Rewrite Immigration Laws, Includes
Provision that Makes it a Felony to be an Undocumented Worker
Workers in New Orleans Denied Pay, Proper Housing and Threatened
with Deportation
New Orleans Residents Face Eviction From Homes as Rents Skyrocket
and Legal Protections Remain Weak
House Debates Bill to Rewrite Immigration Laws, Includes
Provision that Makes it a Felony to be an Undocumented Worker
The House debates a bill that would rewrite the nation's
immigration laws. The legislation makes it a felony to be
an undocumented worker to be in the United States without
authorization and requires all employers to verify the legal
status of their workers. We speak with the general counsel
of the immigration worker program at the AFL-CIO and a member
of the Border Network for Human Rights. [includes rush
transcript]
The House overcame internal opposition Thursday and began
debate on a bill that would rewrite the nation's immigration
laws.
The legislation - known as HR 4437 - was introduced last
week by Republican House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner
of Wisconsin. It was pushed through committee one day later
with little debate.
Sensenbrenner has been trying to get the full House to approve
the bill this week, but has run into resistance from both
sides of the aisle. Among other measures, the legislation
will make it a felony - instead of a misdemeanor - to be in
the United States without authorization. It will require all
employers to verify the legal status of their workers. It
will deputize police along the border to act as immigration
enforcers. And it will allow immigration agents to summarily
deport people in border areas they suspect of being undocumented,
with little or no due process.
Seeking to sink the legislation, several congressmembers
took the tactical step on Thursday of voting against a rule
that had to pass to allow the measure to go up for a vote.
After GOP leaders appealed for party unity, the House voted
220-206 to approve the parliamentary measure needed to move
forward. Wisconsin Republican, James Sensenbrenner took the
floor last night and urged the chamber to approve the bill.
- Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R - WI), December 15, 2005.
A coalition of Republican lawmakers are pushing even tougher
measures including a provision to deny citizenship for the
children born to undocumented workers. Last night, the House
voted to approve an amendment that would require the Department
of Homeland Security to build five fences along 700 miles
of the US border. The fences would be constructed along stretches
of land in California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.
While the White House said in a statement that it strongly
supported the bill, a storm of opposition to the legislation
has been mounting from labor and other groups. Protests have
occurred on Capitol Hill, in Los Angeles and elsewhere. The
AFL-CIO wrote all members of Congress asking them to vote
the bill down.
- Ana Avendano, associate general counsel of the immigration
worker program at AFL-CIO.
- Fernando Garcia, director of the Border
Network for Human Rights based in El Paso, Texas. He
is leading a delegation of border community leaders to Capitol
Hill to oppose the bill and discuss alternatives to border
enforcement and immigration reform.
Workers in New Orleans Denied Pay, Proper Housing
and Threatened with Deportation
In the clean-up efforts following the devastation of hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans, many undocumented workers and homeless
people were recruited to the area to work under large companies
contracted by the federal government. We speak with Newsday
reporter Tina Susman, who has investigated the case of a group
of homeless men, and Bill Chandler, about subcontractors and
workers' complaints. [includes rush
transcript]
In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina whipped the Gulf Coast
region, companies like Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root
- a Halliburton subsidiary - and EEC Operating Services were
given huge contracts by the federal government to clean up
hurricane debris and start rebuilding the area. Undocumented
immigrants and other economically marginalized people were
lured to the region by promises of work and good pay. But
it turns out that many of those workers have never been paid
and have little recourse in collecting their promised checks.
Some undocumented workers were even threatened with deportation
when they demanded their pay.
An article on Salon.com stated that the problem is "a
shadowy labyrinth of contractors, subcontractors and job brokers,
overseen by no single agency, that have created a no man's
land where nobody seems to be accountable for the hiring-and
abuse of these workers."
- Tina Susman, a reporter for Newsday. She followed the
case of a group of homeless men from Atlanta who went to
New Orleans to work and never got paid.
- Bill Chandler, president of the Mississippi Immigrant
Rights Alliance. Their group has filed complaints against
five subcontractors in the Gulfport region on behalf of
workers who weren't paid for the cleanup that they did.
New Orleans Residents Face Eviction From Homes as
Rents Skyrocket and Legal Protections Remain Weak
Three months after fighting for their lives in the days
after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, many survivors
are now fighting to keep their homes in the city of New Orleans.
We speak with attorney Ishmael Muhammad and a N.O. resident
being evicted about the rising costs of rent and the legal
challenges facing evacuees. [includes rush
transcript]
hey are victims of a combination of massive forced evictions
taking place throughout the city, a failure of the city to
reopen public housing projects and price gouging that is raising
rents as much as three times as high as their pre-Katrina
level. Again, it is mostly the poor, and African-Americans
who face these conditions.
Louisiana had some of the weakest tenant protection laws
in the nation even before Katrina hit. And in the weeks after
the storm, landlords began evicting thousands of people a
day, most of whom had evacuated the city. The landlords cite
increased insurance costs and the need to repair damaged property.
They also point out that neither FEMA nor the state, are helping
them to pay their bills. But there have been many reports
of landlords jacking up the rents of undamaged property and
evicting people who tried to pay their rent.
The vast majority of public housing units in the city have
also not been reopened, even though it is estimated that about
half of the units are either ready for occupation or can easily
be made so.
- Sonia Kahn, is being evicted from her apartment in New
Orleans.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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