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MELVILLE
Immigration Advocates To Rally
Group plans demonstration to boost
Senators immigration bill outside his Melville office
By Danny Schrafel/dschrafel@longislandernews.com
A first-time visit to Senator Chuck Schumers
Melville offices will bring a message of support from Long Island
immigration activists Thursday morning.
Under the umbrella of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, activists
were planning to rally outside the Democratic senators office
on March 4 to push him to introduce immigration legislation in the
U.S. Senate.
He is sponsoring an immigration reform bill and we are having
a rally to show our support for Sen. Schumer and his immigration
bill and to ask him to introduce it as soon as possible, said
Maryann Sinclair Slutsky, campaign director of Port Washington-based
Long Island WINS, one of the immigration organizations participating
in the rally.
The rally is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at Schumers Melville
office, located at 145 Pinelawn Road. Originally scheduled for Feb.
11, the first rally was snowed out.
Slutsky said her organization is pushing for legislation to include
an earned, legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants
not amnesty, she stressed.
We want to see legalization for undocumented immigrants and
an earned path to citizenship [including] background checks, learning
English, becoming full participants in the community and paying
their fair share of taxes, she said
Schumers legislation, which the Senator has said he can have
ready whenever the Obama administration wants it, would follow in
the footsteps of a bill introduced by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D
Ill.) which would require illegal immigrants to prove employment,
pay a $500 fine and pass a criminal background check before pursuing
citizenship. The proposal would also push a crackdown on businesses
that employ illegal immigrants and strengthen border security while
requiring improvements to immigration jails and ending a program
that enlists local and state officers as immigration agents.
However, the Gutierrez bill, which does not require immigrants to
engage in touchback, where immigrants return to their
homeland first before pursuing American citizenship, has been criticized
as de facto amnesty that would produce a larger flow of migrant
workers during a recession. It does not include a program to analyze
future labor demands and control the future flow of migrants, particularly
through a temporary worker program.
Slutsky argued immigration reform is key to economic revitalization
in the recession-wracked United States. Immigrants created 82,000
jobs through their spending on Long Island, mustered $7.5 billion
in buying power and had an overall economic impact of $10.6 billion
in 2006 while creating billions in net tax revenue about
$2,305 per person, according to a report published in 2008 by Adelphi
Universitys Dr. Mariano Torras.
They contribute a meaningful amount to the Long Island economy
not only through buying and spending, but taxes as well. [Immigrants
have] a net benefit in taxes, contrary to what most people think,
Slutsky said.
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