Fifteen hundred students from Fairfax, Arlington and Falls Church, Va., and 300 students in Kensington, Md., left their middle and high schools Thursday to protest an immigration bill that the House has passed and has raised objection nationwide.
The House bill H-4437, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., would make being an illegal immigrant a felony and assisting one a federal crime, according to The Washington Post. Currently, there are nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S., and 500,000 entering each year since 2000, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center.
According to The Post, more than 750,000 people have marched against the bill. Nationwide, marches included 500,000 protesters in Los Angeles and 100,000 in Chicago.
Many of the students who are protesting are U.S. citizens and are protesting to protect their emigrated parents. They worry that their parents could be deported, after living, working and paying taxes to the U.S. government for decades, according to The Post.
Kenia Rodriguez, a senior in Kogod and co-director of AU's Latino and American Student Organization, said their chapter is meeting with other Latino and Hispanic student organizations from the University of Maryland, George Washington, George Mason and Georgetown universities to participate in a protest against Sensenbrenner's bill on April 10 in D.C.
"A lot undocumented immigrants come here strictly to work and send the money back to their family," Rodriguez said. "Undocumented workers are not here to cause harm. They just want to contribute to the nation's economy."
Rodriguez supports Bush's proposal for undocumented immigrants to "get temporary status to work here for a while, and if they prove they are working citizens, then they can apply for permanent citizenship."
Rita Simon, a professor in the School of Public Affairs and the Washington College of Law who has written five books on immigration policies, also supports the temporary worker program.
"I am in favor of a guest worker program allowing illegal immigrants who are here to continue to work hard and perform well as members of society," Simon said. "I am not in favor of open borders. I would be in favor of being sure our borders are controlled."
Jennifer Arboleda, a sophomore in the School of International Service and co-director of LASO, wants Bush to pass the DREAM- Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors- Act which allows undocumented immigrant students who went to high school in the U.S. to go to college with in-state tuition. Often immigrant students get charged out-of-state or international student tuitions even though they have lived in-state, Arboleda said.
In reference to the threat that undocumented immigrants could pose to American jobs, Arboleda said, "A lot of people say that [immigrants] are here to take away our jobs, but the majority of undocumented immigrants are doing jobs that most people would not want to do."
Richard Pastor, AU's vice president of international affairs, said undocumented immigration is a very serious problem.
"The U.S. has not enforced its own laws," he said. "It has in effect been encouraging [undocumented immigration], and the problem has grown worse."
Pastor spoke about immigration at the North American Forum, which was held at Stamford University. Pastor was among 25 leaders from the U.S., Mexico and Canada who discussed North American issues, including immigration and development, security and border control.
Pastor said the size of the reaction to the bill was "astonishing."
"People came out in large numbers to peacefully protest a bill they felt was unfair," he said. "I feel protests did have an effect on debate in Senate. It's not clear what will happen
now."
In addition, in a recent Newsweek International article about U.S./Mexico relations, Pastor said that, "The only solution to the [immigration] problem in the long term is to fix the income gap between the U.S. and Mexico. Workers come to the U.S. for more income. Ninety-three percent had jobs before they left."
Immigrants have served the country well, Simon said.
"They come because they want a better lives for themselves - they don't come here to change American society, but because they admire American society," Simon said.
