Local Immigrant Advocates Speak Out on Obama Speech
Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Editor
Local Immigrant Advocates Speak Out on Obama Speech
Obama called for comprehensive immigration reform and blasted the controversial Arizona law, but he also had some choice words for illegal immigrants.
“Finally, we have to demand responsibility from people living here illegally,” Obama said. “They must be required to admit that they broke the law. They should be required to register, pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. They must get right with the law before they can get in line and earn their citizenship.”
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Ramon Martinez, the former president of Progreso Latino, said forcing illegal immigrants to admit they had broken the law would unnecessarily stigmatize them.
“I don’t think that’s a requirement,” Martinez told GoLocalProv. “The fact that they will pay their taxes and go to the back of the line is a necessary and sufficient condition—and they don’t need to sign a document saying ‘I broke the law.’ That’s going on their record.” He said such an admission could hurt their chances of getting a job.
Out on Broad Street in Providence last night, sentiments were much the same among local Hispanics.
Tony Delarosa, who moved here from the Dominican Republic, said immigrants should follow the rules like everyone else—but he wouldn’t go as far as Obama would in condemning those who don’t. “It’s not fair,” Delarosa said. “These immigrant people come over here like everybody else, you know, looking for a better future.”
Like Delarosa, Maggy Figueroa said immigrants should follow the law. But she didn’t agree with the President that illegal immigrants should admit they had broken the law, be fined, and wait in the back of the line to become citizens. “That’s messed up. They should not do that,” Figueroa said. “They should treat them right—like human beings.”
Martinez believes the entire immigration system in the United States is broken. Instead of patching it up, he said the country needs to create a new system.
The state and federal governments, he said, should help individual states prepare for how immigration will impact them. Right now, almost the opposite is happening, he added—the federal government is not enforcing immigration laws while states like Arizona are taking matters into their own hands.
He said the President had some good ideas in his speech—like cracking down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants and putting troops along the border—but none of them will stop people from poring across the border, he concluded. “I understand what he’s saying, but how do you enforce that?” Martinez said. “How that’s going to work? It’s not clear to me.”
Martinez, for one, has his own solution to the problem. He said illegal—or undocumented—immigrants should be classified as “transitioning immigrants” and carry a yellow card, like the “green” card legal immigrants are issued. Every year, he said a portion of the “transitioning immigrants” would be permitted to become regular, legal immigrants.