Tuesday August 28, 2001 |

WASHINGTON - Civil rights leaders and members of unions representing immigrant workers pushed for equal opportunities for immigrants yesterday, a week before President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox are to meet to discuss granting residency to 3 million undocumented Mexicans.

Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP board of directors, said the Bush administration proposal is unfair because it wouldn't give legal status to tax-paying immigrants from different countries who are already in the United States.

"Immigration is an African-American issue, it's a Latino issue, an Asian-American issue. But most of all it's an American issue," Bond said at a press conference. "There is too much division based on where you are from and what you look like."

A poll released earlier this month by Service Employees International Union and Catholic Healthcare West found that people are almost evenly split between wanting to keep immigration levels the same and decreasing it. In 1995, opposition ran 2-to-1 over the number of people who wanted to keep it where it was or increase it.

Anti-immigration advocates argue that legalizing immigrants currently in the country illegally would reward people for breaking the law and increase unemployment, traffic and crime, and strain energy resources.

"General amnesty is not a solution to any of the problems this country is facing," said David Ray, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "The question everyone is failing to answer is how we're going to stop future immigration."

Advocates also argue that Bush's effort to get support for the 2004 election by giving immigrants amnesty will backfire.

"The only way the Republicans are going to get the lion's share of the vote is to out-offer the Democrats," Ray said. "The result will be that Republicans will immigrate themselves out of power."

Immigrants from Poland, Haiti and Nigeria said yesterday that people who have come from different countries and work hard and pay their taxes should be given the same rights as other Americans.

Marie Sylvain said she left her son, daughter and mother in Haiti 22 years ago.

"Many immigrants are forced to leave their countries and find a better life," said Sylvain, 43, a former nursing-home worker who said she was fired for trying to form an immigrant workers union in Miami. "We are good people and we work hard - no different from immigrants from Mexico."

Bond said the Service Employees International Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plan to push for equal opportunity policies on Capitol Hill and hold nationwide rallies.