Immigration Reform: Will Walden Be On Board? (AUDIO)

A rally is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. today at Cascades Theatrical Company in Bend.

(BEND, Ore.) - Oregon 2nd District Congressman Greg Walden will be greeted - and perhaps grilled - today in Bend by a coalition of groups who think he should be doing more to support immigration reform.

His Web site does not mention immigration as an issue, and the Republican has been strictly conservative on that front, voting to build a wall along the southern U.S. border.

But with talk spreading that Walden might run for governor, immigration reform advocates say he should listen to those who are willing to be voting, tax-paying Oregonians.

They just want basic rights, such as the ability to drive legally, says Greg Delgado, Latino community coordinator for Central Oregon Jobs with Justice.

"There are 70,000 people right now who don't have a driver's license. In rural areas that just decimates people, because they work in farms and communities out here and they don't have transportation - that affects them drastically."

Immigration reform has taken a back seat to the health care debate in recent months, but Delgado sees both as human rights issues.

Having a clear path to citizenship and assurances that immigrants will be treated humanely would do a lot to ease tensions in the state, he adds.

"A lot of people are scared right now, because of the driver's license thing and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention issues we're having in this area. There are very mixed feelings; people are very emotional. There's a lot of fear in the community and some anger. But I believe we're going to work through this."

Delgado says backers will introduce another immigration reform bill in Congress after Labor Day.

The rally is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. today at Cascades Theatrical Company, 148 N.W. Greenwood, Bend.

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Relevant Truth August 29, 2009 8:55 am (Pacific time)

One giant myth is that because America is a country of immigrants and has successfully absorbed waves of immigration in the past, it can absorb this illegal wave. First, the immigrant population is more than double today what it was following the most massive previous immigration wave (that of the late 19th century). Second, and much more important, research has shown that even after 20 years in the country, most illegal aliens (the overwhelming majority of whom are Hispanic) and their children remain poor, unskilled, and culturally isolated they constitute a new permanent underclass. For a closer glimpse of what’s in store for California, look at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California and the second largest in the country. Of its roughly 700,000 students, almost three-quarters are Hispanic, 8.9 percent are white, and 11.2 percent are black. A recent study by UC Santa Barbara’s California Dropout Research Project estimates that high-school dropouts in 2007 alone will cost the state $24.2 billion in future economic losses. Even those who graduate aren’t necessarily headed to success. According to one study, 69 percent of Latino high-school graduates “do not meet college requirements or satisfy prerequisites for most jobs that pay a living wage.” It is difficult to see how the majority-Hispanic labor force of the future can provide the skills that the sophisticated Los Angeles economy demands. Already studies show that as many as 700,000 Los Angeles Latinos and some 65 percent of the city’s illegal immigrants work in L.A.’s huge underground economy. California’s educational system, once easily the best in the country, is today mired in mediocrity near the bottom among the 50 states as judged by National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in math, science, reading, and writing. And for the first time in its history, California is experiencing an increase in adult illiteracy. In 2003, it had the highest adult illiteracy in the United States, 23 percent nearly 50 percent higher than a decade earlier. In some counties (Imperial at 41 percent, Los Angeles at 33 percent) illiteracy approaches sub-Saharan levels. California currently ranks 40th among the 50 states in college-attendance rates, and it already faces a significant shortage of college graduates. Studies have shown that the economy will need 40 percent of its workers to be college-educated by 2020, compared with today’s 32 percent. Given the aging white population (average age, 42), many of these new graduates will have to come from the burgeoning Latino immigrant population (average age, 26). By one estimate, this would require tripling of the number of college-educated immigrants, an impossibility if current trends hold. The state’s inability to improve the educational attainment of its residents will result in a “substantial decline in per capita income” and “place California last among the 50 states” by 2020, according to a study by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. What can be done to stop this race to the bottom? The answer is simple: California and Washington need to enforce existing immigration law.

Henry Ruark August 28, 2009 2:54 pm (Pacific time)

Truth: Thank you for comprehensive coverage badly needed for real understanding of issues here. Gov't.milking of entering immingrants nothing new, may even be classed as common practice since Colonial days. But Statue of Liberty doth not hold up that Light for naught, either...as I learned long ago from an Italian immigrant shoemaker in Maine, but that's another story already known to friends.

Truth August 28, 2009 2:13 pm (Pacific time)

Undocumented immigrants paying more taxes than you think!! http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/ http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/images/File/factcheck//EconomicsofCIRFullDoc.pdf Eight million Undocumented immigrants pay Social Security, Medicare and income taxes. Denying public services to people who pay their taxes is an affront to America’s bedrock belief in fairness. But many “pull-up-the-drawbridge” politicians want to do just that when it comes to Undocumented immigrants. The fact that Undocumented immigrants pay taxes at all will come as news to many Americans. A stunning two thirds of Undocumented immigrants pay Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes. Yet, nativists like Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., have popularized the notion that illegal aliens are a colossal drain on the nation’s hospitals, schools and welfare programs — consuming services that they don’t pay for. In reality, the 1996 welfare reform bill disqualified Undocumented immigrants from nearly all means tested government programs including food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and Medicare-funded hospitalization. The only services that illegals can still get are emergency medical care and K-12 education. Nevertheless, Tancredo and his ilk pushed a bill through the House criminalizing all aid to illegal aliens — even private acts of charity by priests, nurses and social workers. Potentially, any soup kitchen that offers so much as a free lunch to an illegal could face up to five years in prison and seizure of assets. The Senate bill that recently collapsed would have tempered these draconian measures against private aid. But no one — Democrat or Republican — seems to oppose the idea of withholding public services. Earlier this year, Congress passed a law that requires everyone who gets Medicaid — the government-funded health care program for the poor — to offer proof of U.S. citizenship so we can avoid “theft of these benefits by illegal aliens,” as Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., puts it. But, immigrants aren’t flocking to the United States to mooch off the government. According to a study by the Urban Institute, the 1996 welfare reform effort dramatically reduced the use of welfare by undocumented immigrant households, exactly as intended. And another vital thing happened in 1996: the Internal Revenue Service began issuing identification numbers to enable illegal immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers to file taxes. One might have imagined that those fearing deportation or confronting the prospect of paying for their safety net through their own meager wages would take a pass on the IRS’ scheme. Not so. Close to 8 million of the 12 million or so illegal aliens in the country today file personal income taxes using these numbers, contributing billions to federal coffers. No doubt they hope that this will one day help them acquire legal status — a plaintive expression of their desire to play by the rules and come out of the shadows. What’s more, aliens who are not self-employed have Social Security and Medicare taxes automatically withheld from their paychecks. Since undocumented workers have only fake numbers, they’ll never be able to collect the benefits these taxes are meant to pay for. Last year, the revenues from these fake numbers — that the Social Security administration stashes in the “earnings suspense file” — added up to 10 percent of the Social Security surplus. The file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year. Beyond federal taxes, all illegals automatically pay state sales taxes that contribute toward the upkeep of public facilities such as roads that they use, and property taxes through their rent that contribute toward the schooling of their children. The non-partisan National Research Council found that when the taxes paid by the children of low-skilled immigrant families — most of whom are illegal — are factored in, they contribute on average $80,000 more to federal coffers than they consume. Yes, many illegal migrants impose a strain on border communities on whose doorstep they first arrive, broke and unemployed. To solve this problem equitably, these communities ought to receive the surplus taxes that federal government collects from immigrants. But the real reason border communities are strained is the lack of a guest worker program. Such a program would match willing workers with willing employers in advance so that they wouldn’t be stuck for long periods where they disembark while searching for jobs. The cost of undocumented aliens is an issue that immigrant bashers have created to whip up indignation against people they don’t want here in the first place. With the Senate having just returned from yet another vacation and promising to revisit the stalled immigration bill, politicians ought to set the record straight: Illegals are not milking the government. If anything, it is the other way around. The Undocumented Immigrants pay the exact same amount of taxes like you and me when they buy Things, rent a house, fill up gas, drink a beer or wine, buy appliances, play the states lottery and mega millions . Below are the links to just a few sites that will show you exactly how much tax you or the Undocumented Immigrant pays , so you see they are NOT FREELOADERS, THEY PAY TAXES AND TOLLS Exactly the same as you, Now if you take out 10% from your states /city Budget what will your city/state look like financially ? Stop your folly thinking , you are wise USE YOUR WISDOM to see the reality. They pay more taxes than you think, Including FEDERAL INCOME TAX using a ITN Number that is given to them by the IRS, Social Security Taxes and State taxes that are withheld form their paychecks automatically. GAS Taxes paid by you and the Undocumented are the same. Go to and check out your states tax; http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp Cigarette Taxes paid by you and the Undocumented are the same, check this out in : http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/cigarett.html Food Taxes, paid by You and the Undocumented are the same in each state check your state : http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/sales.html Clothing Sales Taxes, are the same paid by you and the Undocumented Immigrant; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States City Taxes, are the same paid by you or the Undocumented, since he pays rent and the LANDLORD pays the city : http://www.town-usa.com/statetax/statetaxlist.html Beer Taxes, are the same paid by you or the Undocumented: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/beer.html TAX DATA : http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html

Vic August 28, 2009 1:44 pm (Pacific time)

For what it is worth, you do not have to be a citizen to get a driver's license in Mexico. But then again, they are not a bunch of scared, racist, hate-filled babies that need to blame their failures in life on someone else...

Henry Ruark August 28, 2009 1:34 pm (Pacific time)

"Anon": Would that rep. gov't was all that easy, but your naivete shows here all too clearly. NO major legislation escapes close scrutiny by legislators at either state or national level; that's as it should be even today with dollar-muscle too deeply applied. Consensus is clearly,cleanly demanded for classical law to be effectively written and then enforced,where it counts. It is when political pandering is allowed to enforce either party's too- often distorted corporate lobbyist contacts that our democracy is damaged by desultory dialog, denials of defining oath for commonweal good, and defiance of the public will when truly known. Those contacts demand our strong control over private interests to return our system to its real owners. Federal funds spent on futile fences fail to find any kind or effective control for easy entrance across nearly indefensible borders. What's required is sensible, sensitive access to ready step by step integration into our existing society, including the same privileges and human rights as citizens, when that superior status is properly earned by sensitive, sensible legislation to make it happen. Until, unless that is done we do well to assist and aid those working towards that best-end for all concerned.

Anonymous August 28, 2009 9:59 am (Pacific time)

Does not the state of Oregon have ID requirements for getting a driver's license? Also if Rep. Walden is about enforcing the immigration laws, then he is representing what the majority of the voter's want as per every major poll I've seen. Seems that Governor Kulongoski would be an excellent individual for this group to talk to for he signed the state legislation not Walden re: current standards for getting a license. Plus if the democrats in DC want to change the immigration laws they have the votes and republicans like Walden are essentially voiceless in this matter, just like the healthcare legislation.

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