A • A "

'A A •

• •• I V

Agopo A

AAA r

A? Y

11,,

r

`4A

`," A

A' Q

•

• 1 A • f 11 r^

NEWS

WHEN IT'S YOUR DECISION
YOU'LL CHOOSE
MERCEDES BENZ

WHEN IT'S YOUR MONEY
YOU'LL CHOOSE

EUROPEAN AUTO

•

gtaaka<viikasi4 "

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE MERCEDES
WE EITHER HAVE IT OR CAN FIND IT.

LEASING & FINANCING
SERVICE & COLLISION

EUROPEAN AUTO SERVICE, LTD.

21425 Woodward, Ferndale

20

Friday, January 9, 1987

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

399-3130/31

New Immigration Law
To Help Illegal Aliens

STEVEN A. COHEN

Special to The Jewish News

W

altham, Mass. —
The recently ap-
proved overhaul of
the nation's immigration laws
will lead to "healthier, better
America" without an "under-
class that is afraid to report
crime and to send their kids to
school," says Lawrence H.
Fuchs of Brandeis University
whose work contributed to the
new policy.
The law signed by President
Reagan on Nov. 6 establishes
"for the first time in history a
uniform approach to immigra-
tion in which we are saying all
persons who came to work in
the United States ought to
have basic protections under
our constitution and our laws,"
Fuchs said. "No country has
ever done this. Most countries
have many levels, or tiers, of
membership. We're now say-
ing, fundamentally there is
one kind of member."
The law establishes penal-
ties against employers who
hire illegal aliens, and Fuchs
said it will permit up to two
million illegal aliens to remain
in the United States legally.
An amnesty provision
enables aliens who have been
living illegally in this country
since before 1982 to obtain
temporary legal residency.
That can be converted to per-
manent status after 18 months
by those who can demonstrate
some understanding of English
and some knowledge of U.S.
history and government. Citi-
zenship can be applied for after
an additional five years.
The law also provides that
all employers require newly
hired workers to show them
some form of identification ver-
ifying that they are eligible to
work in the United States.
Employers caught knowingly
hiring illegal aliens will be
subject to civil fines and crimi-
nal penalties, including possi-
ble prison terms for habitual
offenders.
Fuchs is a veteran of the
battle for reform of immigra-
tion law. On leave from Bran-
deis University between
1979-81, he served as execu-
tive director of the bipartisan
Select Commission on Immi-
gration and Refugee Policy
whose recommendations led
ultimately to the new law.
According to Fuchs, about 50
percent of the illegal aliens in
this country are Mexican na-
tionals. Another 25 percent
come from Central and South
America. Estimates of the total
numbers range from 3.5 mil-
lion to six million.
While the issue of illegal
aliens is national in scope, the
labor procurement practices
for agriculture in the West and
Southwest — which were
"based on indenture," accord-
ing to Fuchs — generated the
stiffest resistance to reform.
Between World War II and
1965, he said, the so-called

Bracero Program provided
growers with contracted labor
usually at less than minimum
wage, with few legal protec-
tions available for workers.
This was replaced in 1965 with
a program based on temporary
working visas, but the pro-
gram, said Fuchs, wasn't used
in the West and Southwest,
which depended on illegal
laborers.
The agricultural interests
were concerned "that they
would go out of business with-
out a steady supply of Mexican
laborers," Fuchs said.
The law responds to these
concerns with the agriculture
worker recruitment and re-
plenishment program, which'
provides for a steady labor
force of about 350,000 people.
They will be in the United
States legally and, when they
become resident aliens, they
will be "entitled to all funda-
mental protections," said
Fuchs. The workers will be
allowed to move and change
jobs if they wish, and, through
1993, - the growers will be able
to replace those who go
elsewhere, subject to approval
by the Department of Labor.
Fuchs said his commission
had concluded that "the worst
thing about the presence of il-
legal aliens is that they consti-
tute a large and growing
underclass of persons who live
outside the law" and avoid ac-
tivities such as reporting crime
and medical problems, that
might bring them to the atten-
tion of the authorities.
Another concern, he said,
was that Americans would
come to depend on a large class
of illegal alien labor to do cer-
tain kinds of work.
"Identifying ethnic groups
as a class with certain kinds of
labor is something that goes
against the deep American be-
lief in equality of opportunity
for all persons who live and
work in the country, regardless
of ethnic background," Fuchs
said.
He said the new law "means
more immigrants will be ac-
cessing the nation's social sys-
tem. They won't need to
tolerate crime or live without
health care. And their kids will
go to college instead of hiding."

Copyright JTA, Inc.

Kindergarten
To Be Rebuilt

New York — The American
Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC) is allocating
$50,000 to help rebuild a kin-
dergarten in San Salvador, the
capital of El Salvador.
The Estado de Israel, a non-
sectarian school serving 300
students, was destroyed by the
earthquake in October that left
nearly 1,000 people dead and
31,000 families homeless.
The JDC allocation will
match funds contributed by the
Salvadoran Jewish commu-
nity.

