Immigration Reform, Big Business, NAFTA and the Impact on the African American Workforce

Protests are continuing across the country against proposed changes to the nation's immigration laws. In New York, tens of thousands of people marched from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan on Saturday in support of immigrant rights. The rally came a week after upwards of million people demonstrated in Los Angeles, and after weeks of historic protests in cities from Chicago to Denver to Phoenix.

On Capitol Hill, the debate over immigration reform is continuing in Congress. On Sunday, Senate majority leader Bill Frist said he wants a full Senate vote on immigration legislation later this week despite sharp divisions over the issue between Democrats and Republicans as well as within his own party.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved a bill that would allow the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in this country a chance to work here legally and eventually become U.S. citizens. President Bush supports a guest worker plan that would not allow undocumented workers to obtain citizenship but would let them stay in the country as legal residents. Meanwhile the House has already approved legislation written by Republican James Sensenbrenner that has been described as the most repressive immigration bill in 70 years. House bill 4437 would, among other things, make every undocumented immigrant a felon and make it a crime for priests, nuns, health care workers and other social workers to offer help to undocumented immigrants.

The issue of immigration dominated the Sunday talk shows this weekend. Sensenbrenner called the legislation "the toughest thing that I've done in 37 years in elective public office." Senator George Allen of Virginia broke ranks with President Bush saying, "I don't think we ought to be passing anything that rewards illegal behavior or amnesty." And South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham cast the debate as "a defining moment for the Republican Party."

For more on the issue of immigration we speak with two guests:

* Ron Walters, professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland College Park. His most recent book is titled "Freedom is Not Enough."
* David Bacon, a veteran labor journalist who writes for a number of publications, including The Nation, The Progressive and the Pacific News Service. He is also a programmer on Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley. Bacon is author of the books "The Children of NAFTA" and "Communities Without Borders" which is being published later this year.
- See website
http://dbacon.igc.org/

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