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The protests were triggered by the prospect of a new bill aimed to criminalize illegal immigrants and those who support them, as well as build a 700 mile long wall along the 2,000 mile border with Mexico, which already has 83 miles of fences. These protests spread the message across that immigrants are an indispensable part of the US economy and, hence, deserve the right to continue living and working in the US.
The
protests may be a cumulative effect of several factors.
The US Homeland Security officials were of the opinion that
the proposed immigration law can provide a quick and easy
way to detain people who could be potential terrorists. According
to them, the intention was to make it tougher for terrorists
to obtain driving licenses and for people without proper identification
to board planes or enter federal buildings. But the bill would
also enable checking all the immigrants. Many of the states
are themselves passing their own laws against immigration.
The state of California passed a law to deny state funded
medical, educational and other social services to undocumented
workers. US citizenship is also denied to children born to
undocumented workers. Threats of deportation are common to
these undocumented workers.
According
to the Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a Senior Fellow and Director of
The Center on Global Prosperity at the Independent Institute,
the protest had its impact. The Senate revised the bill and
is contemplating a very different solution that would allow
illegal immigrants staying in America for more than five years
to become guest workers and then citizens. It would also assure
that these undocumented workers who stayed in America for
two to five years would get a guest worker permit if they
went back to their countries and applied for it in the US
Consulate.
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