CHIRLA: Senate is playing politics

July 8, 2:11 PMLA Border and Immigration ExaminerAurelia Fierros

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In response to the passage of two amendments to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010, Angélica Salas, Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), said the Senate is playing politics ignoring the nation’s momentum on immigration reform.

The controversial amendments introduced by Senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) seek to expand and make permanent the E-Verify program and call for the completion of an actual wall along 700 miles of the Mexico-USA border. Both amendments passed by a 54-40 vote.

“While on one hand the Obama Administration seeks to respond to the public’s demands for real answers to our nation’s most serious problems, the Senate today underscored the disconnect between the general public and its law makers,” said Salas.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano had announced earlier today, that the Social Security No-Match Rule will be rescinded in favor of the E-Verify program, to which Salas commented that ending the expensive program was the right thing to do, but was not convinced about the performance of the Senate regarding the E-Verify and the erection of the controversial border wall.

“Secretary Napolitano has done the right thing in terminating the No-Match program, a costly, ineffective program filled with errors. The program jeopardized countless employers and workers and offered no effective solutions to the problem of hiring undocumented workers."

"The Senate followed a strangely different path today. Led by a conservative, anti-immigrant minority, the Senate buckled and supported the expansion of the E-Verify program and a wall of shame along our southern border. According to recent polling by the Benenson Strategy Group, more than 85% of Americans support Congress passing just and humane immigration reform, and yet the Senate has chosen to play politics. With their two votes today, the Senate has gone backwards by supporting Bush-era actions that do not work," Salas continued.

"The President and Congress have much to dialogue in the next few months as our nation’s patience is growing very thin,” warned Salas.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) is a regional human and immigrant rights organization based in Los Angeles.

For more info: Visit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles