VTMBH Article: Body
Representatives of the U.S. immigrant community pronounced themselves "deceived" by President George W. Bush's "unjust" decision last week to call off his general amnesty for immigrants in the United States.
The president's decision is inadequate, said immigrant rights groups in New York and Massachusetts, especially when "it is this country's immigrants who help the economy" by taking jobs that no citizen would perform.
In any case, the various organizations indicated that the terrorist attacks of September 11th ratcheted up the anti-immigrant sentiment that may have influenced Bush's decision.
"Before September 11, we [immigrants] had won a lot of sympathy around the country. But after, they started looking at us as if we were criminals. It doesn't seem right to me that they accuse us like this. The president's decision doesn't seem fair," said Esperanza Chacón, of Asociacion Tepeyac, in New York.
"They argue [against amnesty] on the basis of the country's national security problems, but the census says there are 8 million undocumented persons in the United States. They work for small businesses and support the community," claimed Mónica Santana, director of the Latino Workers' Center of New York. She added that she doesn't place "much importance on the denial of general amnesty because this is a question of politics. They say one thing and do another. I definitely think they took the wrong path when they placed the responsibility for what happened on September 11th on immigrants. We could end up with a population of hardworking people who have neither rights nor protections," she asserted.
For her part, Giovanna Negretti, executive director of the Massachusetts-based organization ¿Oíste? said she felt "greatly deceived" by this decision, and argued that President Bush doesn't "take seriously the political capacity of [Latinos] to remove him from power."
"[Bush] knows he has to depend on the Latino vote in order to win in the coming elections, and many of the votes in these elections will come from Latinos. I think it's strange. It's very sad that the president of a nation of immigrants would decide to close the doors to [new] immigrants," Negretti said. She also spoke of anti-immigrant sentiment that the attacks have generated.
"This country has always been anti-immigrant, but September 11th gave special license to the immigrant-bashers to do things that are simply incredible," Negretti said.
The president's decision is inadequate, said immigrant rights groups in New York and Massachusetts, especially when "it is this country's immigrants who help the economy" by taking jobs that no citizen would perform.
In any case, the various organizations indicated that the terrorist attacks of September 11th ratcheted up the anti-immigrant sentiment that may have influenced Bush's decision.
"Before September 11, we [immigrants] had won a lot of sympathy around the country. But after, they started looking at us as if we were criminals. It doesn't seem right to me that they accuse us like this. The president's decision doesn't seem fair," said Esperanza Chacón, of Asociacion Tepeyac, in New York.
"They argue [against amnesty] on the basis of the country's national security problems, but the census says there are 8 million undocumented persons in the United States. They work for small businesses and support the community," claimed Mónica Santana, director of the Latino Workers' Center of New York. She added that she doesn't place "much importance on the denial of general amnesty because this is a question of politics. They say one thing and do another. I definitely think they took the wrong path when they placed the responsibility for what happened on September 11th on immigrants. We could end up with a population of hardworking people who have neither rights nor protections," she asserted.
For her part, Giovanna Negretti, executive director of the Massachusetts-based organization ¿Oíste? said she felt "greatly deceived" by this decision, and argued that President Bush doesn't "take seriously the political capacity of [Latinos] to remove him from power."
"[Bush] knows he has to depend on the Latino vote in order to win in the coming elections, and many of the votes in these elections will come from Latinos. I think it's strange. It's very sad that the president of a nation of immigrants would decide to close the doors to [new] immigrants," Negretti said. She also spoke of anti-immigrant sentiment that the attacks have generated.
"This country has always been anti-immigrant, but September 11th gave special license to the immigrant-bashers to do things that are simply incredible," Negretti said.