The Associated Press reported that labor and pro-immigrant groups in Oregon denounced a resolution by the Oregon Republican Party to deny citizenship to American-born children of noncitizen immigrants.
"This resolution exposes the Oregon Republican Party as a hateful, misinformed party that is too extreme for Oregon ," said Chris Ferlaz of Jobs for Justice, a coalition of more than 80 labor and immigrant rights groups that supports immigrant causes. Eunice Cho of the National Network of Immigrant and Refugee Rights said that while the resolution may merely be symbolic, it demonstrates "the level to which immigrants are unwelcome in this country." Cho further explained that if the resolution was passed, it would "create a class of people in this country who have no state [to call home]".
Jim Lehman, chairman of the Wasco County Republican Party, who wrote the resolution, acknowledged it was unlikely to become a law any time soon. Lehman said he "wanted to light the fire, and the resolution was the first step".
Legal experts say making the resolution a law would require the unlikely combination of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures agreeing to alter or erase the 14th Amendment, which confers citizenship on everyone born in the United States .
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According to the Associated Press, a Democratic political ad is being criticized by Hispanics who say it unfairly compares Latino immigrants to terrorists. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) sponsored a 35-second ad on its web site that shows footage of two people scaling a border fence mixed with images of Osama Bin Laden and North Korean President Kim Jong II.
Houston City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, a Democrat, sent a letter to DSCC Chairman Senator Charles Schumer of New York asking that the ad be pulled. "To liken immigrants to bazooka-toting terrorists not only undermines the positive relationship our party has with this community, but also lowers us to a despicable level as breeders of unfounded fear and hatred," Alvarado wrote.
The ad features scenes of a masked man with a bazooka, scenes from terrorist attacks, police inspecting a subway, and footage of a person climbing a metal border fence and another preparing to climb it as the words "millions more illegal immigrants" form on the screen. The ad ends with the words, "Feel safer? Vote for a change."
Pedro Celis, chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly said in a statement that, "equating these undocumented migrants to the very real threats of terrorism is inexcusable and only serves to fan the flames of anti-immigrant sentiment in our country."
While the faces of the people climbing the fences are not clearly visible, Bettina Inclan, the assembly’s executive director, said the people in the ad appeared Hispanic "not just to us, but to other people who saw the video."
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H.R.5726 : To reform Federal procedures relating to intercountry adoption.
Sponsor: Rep Davis, Jo Ann [VA-1] (introduced 6/29/2006
Committees: House International Relations; House Judiciary
Latest Major Action: 6/29/2006 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
H.R.5456 : To respond to the crisis of illegal immigration in the United States .
Sponsor: Rep Burton, Dan [IN-5] (introduced 5/23/2006)
Committees: House Judiciary; House Homeland Security; House Education and the Workforce; House Ways and Means
Latest Major Action: 7/14/2006 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Education Reform.