Posted on 01/13/2004 12:45:05 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
SAN JUAN(Texas) — For migrant workers at La Union del Pueblo Entero, it did not matter that U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy spoke to them in broken Spanish: They understood him as he spoke against the president’s immigration policy and cheered in support.
Kennedy, D-Rhode Island, joined U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa at the United Farm Workers camp on Monday "Si se puede, pero yo no puedo como mi amigo (It can be done, but I can’t do it like my friend) Rubén," Kennedy said as he introduced himself to a charged group of migrants and farm workers, quoting the UFW’s rally cry while referring to his Spanish skills.
The lawmakers spent the afternoon denouncing Bush’s proposal as a way for corporations to reap rewards "on the backs of hard workers," while making it difficult for them to obtain temporary immigration status, and even told the workers at the rally that they should visit Washington, D.C. to voice their disagreement with the plan.
Under the immigration reform plan unveiled by Bush last week, immigrant workers would be allowed in the United States for three years under a guest worker program. The plan also calls for the creation of a job registry to pair U.S. employers with foreign workers, and would allow the foreign workers to travel back and forth across the border with their families.
"The administration hasn’t been clear about what the conditions are for temporary status," Kennedy told the group. "They just want to work on the backs of hard workers."
Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, criticized the plan, saying it was nothing at all like the AgJOBS Bill the farm workers helped to create, and would take away the rights of workers even after they would have worked, lived and contributed to the U.S. economy for three years.
"It’s not as well thought as AgJOBS, which was proposed about two years, which has some of the programs of having access to the documentation that is going to allow them to be here legally," Hinojosa said. "It doesn’t address family reunification. It doesn’t address whether the workers here today are going to be covered by this program. It’s just too many questions."
Hinojosa invited those at the meeting to go to Washington "to convince congressmen and senators as to what a corrective and improved working program should look like."
"Their voices are very loud," he said. "If they come to Washington, and through different methods that are used by associations of different kinds, (they can) get the message to the voters in the Congress and in the Senate."
Monday’s meeting was one of several stops the two made Monday. Hinojosa and Kennedy were at the dedication of a new Mercedes elementary school named after Kennedy’s uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy.
The two congressmen also spoke to students at the Science Academy.
-Juan Ozuna covers Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.
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