I’ve also mentioned that and I quote; “President Obama believes that our broken immigration system can only be fixed by putting politics aside and offering a complete solution that secures our border, enforces our laws, and reaffirms our heritage as a nation of immigrants”.
He believes our immigration policy should be driven by our best judgment of what is in the economic interest of the United States and what is in the best interest of the American worker. By standing up and looking straight ahead, I found one good reason why we guest workers MUST continue hoping for improved status. I would like to share with you a script from Pres. Obama’s statement before and after his meeting with members of congress to discus immigration released by the Office of the Press Secretary, (For Immediate Release) White House; Washington DC last June 25, 2009
Below is a list of attendees at today’s (June 25) meeting on immigration reform:
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and others. Below is the script of the said meeting and I quote:
“THE PRESIDENT: Hello everybody, We have just finished what I consider to be a very productive meeting on one of the most critical issues that I think this nation faces, and that is an immigration system that is broken and needs fixing. We have members of Congress from both chambers, from parties, who have participated in the meeting and shared a range of ideas. I think the consensus is that despite our inability to get this passed over the last several years, the American people still want to see a solution in which we are tightening up our borders, or cracking down on employers who are using illegal workers in order to drive down wages — and oftentimes mistreat those workers. And we need an effective way to recognize and legalize the status of undocumented workers who are here”.
Please take note that Pres. Obama himself wanted to recognize and legalize the status of undocumented workers who are currently on U.S. soil. How much more we guest workers in CNMI, a US soil and are not undocumented. I hope that with the absence of garment industry that drive down the wage increase for many years and a few mistreatments of garment guest workers that resulted in the creation of the Garment Oversight Board, Pres. Obama’s administration through the representation of the islands only Representative to the US Congress, our concern will be heard. The island Representative cannot do it alone, we have to show our support and physical representation in the upcoming People’s Assembly on August 9, 2009. Let us join and let our voices be heard.
“Now, there is not by any means consensus across the table. As you can see, we’ve got a diverse spectrum of folks here. But what I’m encouraged by is that after all the overheated rhetoric and the occasional demagoguery on all sides around this issue, we’ve got a responsible set of leaders sitting around the table who want to actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now. My administration is fully behind an effort to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. I have asked my Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Janet Napolitano, to lead up a group that is going to be working with a leadership group from both the House and the Senate to start systematically working through these issues from the congressional leaders and those with the relevant jurisdiction. What we’ve heard is through a process of regular order; they would like to work through these issues both in the House and in the Senate”.
Look fellows, our status is leading towards Pres. Obama’s statement by asking Secretary of Homeland Security to work with the House and the Senate systematically with the congressional leaders in line with the Immigration Reform. We are lucky to have (now) a representative to the US Congress who can bring inputs on guest workers current immigration status come November 28, 2009. Let us show our physical support on August 9 in the upcoming people’s assembly to show that “guest workers exist” and guest workers too are part of the immigration reform law discussed during the Congressional Meeting on Hispanic Caucus.
In the next 90 days, USCIS will launch a vastly improved Web site that will, for the first time ever, allow applicants to get updates on the status of their applications via e-mail and text message and online. And anybody who’s dealt with families who are trying to deal with — navigate the immigration system, this is going to save them huge amounts of time standing in line, waiting around, making phone calls, being put on hold. It’s an example of some things that we can do administratively even as we’re working through difficult issues surrounding comprehensive immigration. And the idea is very simple here: We’re going to leverage cutting-edge technology to reduce the unnecessary paperwork, backlogs, and the lack of transparency that’s caused so many people so much heartache.
Now, we all know that comprehensive immigration reform is difficult. We know it’s a sensitive and politically volatile issue. One of the things that was said around the table is the American people still don’t have enough confidence that Congress and any administration is going to get serious about border security, and so they’re concerned that any immigration reform simply will be a short-term legalization of undocumented workers with no long-term solution with respect to future flows of illegal immigration.
Again, Pres. Obama expressed concerned that an undocumented workers are not paying taxes in the way that they’d like to be but us guest workers here in the island, we’ve been paying taxes the way the they’d like us to pay and we’ve been using our SS numbers under US assigned numerical number for more than 10 years.
“I want to especially commend John McCain, who’s with me today, because along with folks like Lindsey Graham, he has already paid a significant political cost for doing the right thing. I stand with him, I stand with Nydia Velázquez and others who have taken leadership on this issue. I am confident that if we enter into this with the notion that this is a nation of laws that have to be observed and this is a nation of immigrants, then we’re going to create a stronger nation for our children and our grandchildren”.
To my fellow Guest Workers, IR’s, US Citizens, if Pres. Obama stands with the people who work for him and took the leadership in the immigration issue, we should also stand by our leaders side in their long standing advocacy who had been working hard for almost 5 years for the improvements of our status. The Unified Group of leaders of the different organization is requesting us to be part of the “People’s Assembly” On August 9, 2009.
Mabuhay & Mabalos!
CARLITO J. MARQUEZ
Puerto Rico, Saipan
