Immigration Laws: October, 2003 - Number #04

A July 13-27, 2003 New York Times/CBS News poll found foreign-born Hispanics optimistic about their future: 70 percent say they identify more with the United States than with their country of origin. About two-thirds of the foreign-born Hispanics moved to the US for economic opportunity, and 82 percent agreed with the poll's proposition that immigrants took jobs that Americans refused. Hispanic immigrants were optimistic about their children: 83 percent thought their children's lives would be better than theirs.

Only 23 percent of the foreign-born Hispanics interviewed were US citizens, perhaps reflecting estimates that 40 percent of foreign-born Hispanic adults in the US are unauthorized. The Hispanics polled were younger and poorer than most Americans: nearly half had family incomes of $30,000 a year or less, and only 10 percent earned $75,000 a year or more.

Demographer Jeffrey S. Passel forecast that the number of US Hispanics could rise from the current 35 million to 60 million by 2020, with half the growth due to US-born children with at least one Hispanic parent. By 2020, there are forecast to be 22 million second-generation Hispanics, 21 million Hispanic immigrants, and 18 million third-generation Hispanics.

In the United States, the terms "Latino" and "Hispanic" are usually used interchangeably, referring to the chief languages of the countries of origin, Latino referring to the Latin-based Romance languages of Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, and Hispanic to "Hispana," the Spanish-language term for the cultural diaspora created by Spain.

Some speakers, however, use the terms to distinguish between and emphasize different ethnic origins: Hispanics are mostly white from the Iberian peninsula, and Latinos are descended from the brown-skinned indigenous Indians of South and Central America, the Caribbean. Thus, many activists want to use only Latino. In the usage of the US Census, Latinos or Hispanics may be of any race.

California. California enacted a law that is expected to permit about 10 percent of the state's 22 million drivers who are unauthorized foreigners to receive driver's licenses. Governor Gray Davis, who was recalled on October 7, 2003, with 55 percent voting to remove him from office, reversed a 2002 decision and signed the bill into law, saying "Every day, hard-working immigrants work in our fields, put food on our table, clean our hotels and care for our seniors. These hard-working immigrants work, pay taxes and they deserve the right to drive to work."

Davis's decision to allow unauthorized foreigners to obtain licenses cost him votes with Democratic blue-collar union members; exit polls found that two-thirds of voters and most union members opposed licenses for unauthorized foreigners. Miguel Contreras, executive secretary of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said there is "no burning enthusiasm for the governor" among union members.

SB 60 allows unauthorized foreigners to apply for licenses by presenting a federal taxpayer identification number and another form of ID, such as a matricula consular, and then having a photo taken and thumbprint recorded along with a physical description and address. However, unlike the 2002 bill, it does not require applicants to apply for legal residency or to show they worked in California at least 15 months. DHS said that it may no longer allow entrants from Mexico and Canada at land borders to show driver's licenses to enter the US.

Since 1994, driver's license applicants in California have had to provide Social Security numbers and prove they were legally in the US. Under SB 60, applicants could provide a federal taxpayer number and a second form of identity chosen by the Department of Motor Vehicles; California becomes the fifteenth state to allow unauthorized foreigners to obtain driver's licenses- the others are Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a naturalized citizen from Austria who arrived in 1970, was elected to replace Davis; he received 48 percent of the vote. He said: "What gave me the opportunities was the open arms of Americans." Schwarzenegger supported Proposition 187, the 1994 initiative that would have created a state-financed system to prevent unauthorized foreigners from obtaining state-funded services, and opposed giving driver's licenses to unauthorized foreigners. He has also been a member of the board of U.S. English, a group advocating English as America's official language, and said he supports a new guest worker program of the type proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Immigrant rights groups picketed his campaign rallies, chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, Schwarzenegger has got to go."

Democrat Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who received 32 percent of the vote, was asked if he saw any differences between legal and illegal immigrants: "I think that anybody who works and pays taxes ought to have a right for citizenship." He said US food "comes from ... immigrants who work hard every day. They pay their taxes. They stay out of trouble with the law. You know, for them not to be able to have a driver's license or to be able to put their kids in school is just plain wrong." Bustamante also refused to distance himself from the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan or MEChA, the Latino student organization that sometimes demands the return of California to Mexico.

According to exit polls, whites cast 69 percent of the votes in the recall election, Hispanics 17 percent, and Blacks six percent. About 55 percent of Hispanics voted against the recall and for Bustamante.

Between 1995 and 2000, California drew 1.4 million residents from other US states, but 2.2 million moved away, the first time California had such net internal emigration since 1940. Spurred by immigration, however, California's population rose 14 percent to 34 million in the 1990s, including 8.9 million or 26 percent foreign-born residents.

The Classifying by Race, Ethnicity, Color and National Origin, or CRECNO, Proposition 54 on the October 2003 recall ballot, would have prohibited state and local government agencies from collecting data on a person's race, ethnicity or national origin. Proponents say that the Racial Privacy Initiative would move California toward a "color-blind" society; opponents say "the Information Ban" would make it hard to track hate crimes and to monitor educational progress; voters rejected Proposition 54.

California's Attorney General has an Office of Immigrant Assistance that targets immigration consultants who take money from often unauthorized foreigners but often provide no services. There are 700 registered and bonded immigration consultants, and many more who advertise in foreign papers and in stores patronized by foreigners.

California got a $99 billion budget for 2003-04 that mostly postponed hard choices for another year by borrowing $17 billion. The $71 billion general fund includes $28 billion for K-12 schools. The federal No Child Left Behind law requires testing to assess student learning, and 925 California schools must offer transfers to students and pay their transportation because the average test scores of the schools did not climb enough.

Proposition 227, approved in 1998, requires California schoolchildren to be taught in English, but allows parents to seek waivers for their children. The percentage of California K-12 pupils in bilingual classes dropped from 29 percent in 1997 to 10 percent in 2003. Most school districts in California no longer offer bilingual education programs; they are provided only if a district receives at least 20 valid waiver requests for bilingual education at any grade level. The most common reason given by parents who request bilingual education is that the parent does not speak English, and will be unable to help their child with English-language home work.

California's GSP is $1.4-trillion, so that if it were a nation-state it would be the world's fifth-largest economy, after the United States, Japan, Germany, and Britain. The next largest economies are France, China (excluding Hong Kong), Italy, Canada and Spain.

Arizona. An initiative being prepared for Arizona voters, "Protect Arizona Now," that would require state and local government workers to check the immigration status of everyone seeking public services, and to inform immigration officials of suspected unauthorized foreigners; K-12 schools would be exempt. Some 122,612 signatures are required to place the issue on the 2004 ballot.

An Arizona state Court of Appeals ruled that an unauthorized migrant was eligible for workers' compensation benefits. His employer appealed, saying that providing such benefits would be a "magnet" for unauthorized migrants.

New York. On May 30, 2003, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg revoked the city's sanctuary policy, which had prohibited city employees informing federal authorities about suspected illegal migrants. Now city employees are not to ask migrants about their legal status, but they may report suspected unauthorized migrants. The change from "don't tell" to "don't ask" produced a backlash among migrant advocates.

West Indians, a fourth of New York City's Black residents, have become successful despite their low wages; many say their success reflects hard work. Caribbean immigration to the United States has been heavily female at least since the mid-1960's, and many of the women work full-time in order to buy homes. With an average of three workers per family, West Indians have a higher median household income in New York City than US-born Blacks who have higher individual earnings but fewer workers per household.

New York City found a woman who applied for 27 marriage licenses between 1984 and 2002. This woman, as well as another 10 "career brides," were charged with perjury and fraud; they were accused of collecting $1,000 or more to marry foreign men.

Darryl Fears, "The Roots of 'Hispanic'," Washington Post, October 15, 2003. Doug Smith and Joel Rubin, "A Bolder Bustamante Moves Leftward," Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2003. Peter Nicholas and Jennifer Mena, "Bill Allowing Illegal Immigrants to Get Driver's Licenses Is Signed," Los Angeles Times, September 6, 2003. Darryl Fears, "Latinos or Hispanics? A Debate About Identity," Washington Post, August 25, 2003. Simon Romero And Janet Elder, "Hispanics in U.S. Report Optimism," New York Times, August 6, 2003. Elvia Diaz, "Ballot initiative targets undocumented migrants," Arizona Republic (Phoenix), July 8, 2003.