Last night, Zocalo brought together a distinguished panel to discuss the changes that may come in our community and our personal lives with immigration reform.
Roberto Suro, Director of the the Thomas Rivera Policy Institute at U.S.C. led the panel discussion. He started out by framing immigration reform as a process of civic mobilization and change. He recalled another May Day in 2006 when a million people took to the streets around the country to protest for immigration reform. Even a year ago, it seemed that this goal was far off. However, after last years' election, it is now up for a vote in a U.S. Senate committee next week. If passed, immigration reform will change how 11.2 million undocumented residents will live in America. It will change their families, schools, jobs, landlords and us. He asked: "What will happen when 11 million outcasts become documented?" It will cause a civic transformation. It will change California and especially Los Angeles County. He said it will take a long time to process the paperwork for all these people and the red tape will be huge. We will need to build an infrastructure to make it happen. The path to citizenship will take at least 13 years.
Manuel Pastor is a U.S.C. Sociology professor in American Studies and Ethnicity. He was formerly in Santa Cruz. He said that 2.6 million undocumented individuals live in California with 900,000 in Los Angeles County. Two thirds of the children in Los Angeles have at lease one immigrant parent. He said that 72% of the undocumented are from Mexico. He talked about the change and the movement that has led to a possible new legalization law. Much of the change has come from below such as the "Dream Act" youth who became public and embarrassed the president to give them temporary legal status. Labor unions have pushed for this change. He predicts that once legal, workers will experience a 15% to 25% increase in income. Children will gain because their parents can become active in their schools and activities with out fear of being deported. He said it will stop the splitting apart of families due to deportation.
Marcelo Suarez Orozco, UCLA Dean of Education and Information Studies and formerly from N.Y.U., talked about how children of immigration will be able to come out of the shadows and this will have a profound effect...the right to have rights. He is concerned that cuts in education will not meet the needs of these children. He said that highly educated immigrants are coming from all over the world and this new law will encourage this further. He said that already PhD's are filling important posts in the U.S. from India and medical doctors from African. They are running our laboratories.
Gilbert Ojeda, U.C. Berkeley School of Public Health, is working in Sacramento to inform the state government on documented solutions for health care. He referred to Texas as an Apartheid Society, because of the separation of the Latino community. However, he said that this is not the case in California. In Los Angeles, Latinos are a major force in our government and society. He said that legalization will allow individuals to go back and forth to the country of their families and lead to greater empowerment of immigrant families with greater voice in their children's schools. He said there will be high skilled workers and low skilled. But that these go hand in hand, with scientists needing nannys and gardeners. Foreign students will compete with U.S. students.
In summary they panel talked about the benefits of legalization of the 11.2 million undocumented people in our country. These newly documented workers will compete strongly, demand more of their rights and bring their skills and entrepreneurial spirit to strengthen the economy and communities where they live.
