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[1]Carousel BayrdPresident Barack Obama issued an executive order on Nov. 20 granting reprieve from deportation for some undocumented immigrants. His order promises to cease deportations of immigrants who have been in the United States for five years or more, or have a child who was born in the United States, as long as the individual does not have a criminal history.
On last week’s A Public Affair, I spoke with Wisconsin State Representative JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milwaukee) and Centro Hispano’s Executive Director Karen Menendez Coller about Obama’s immigration reform proposal and how it directly impacts Madison and Wisconsin.
The number of Wisconsin residents born outside the United States has doubled in the past two decades, to 269,734 foreign-born residents in 2011. That represents almost 5 percept of the state’s population. Of those, 44 percent are naturalized U.S. citizens, while 37 percent are unauthorized to reside in the county.
There are currently 345,000 Latinos residing in Wisconsin, making up 4.6 percent of Wisconsin’s population, up from only 1.9 percent of the population in 1990. This includes 84 percent of children who were born in America but have immigrant parents.
Both Zamarripa, the first Latina state representative in Wisconsin history, and Coller, herself an immigrant to the United States from El Salvador, applauded President Obama’s executive order.
“The idea of adults being able to have work authorization and a social security number, I think that goes above and beyond what I thought this would include when we were first talking about it,” Coller said. “The idea that you could apply for work and come out of the shadows is huge. It means that you are able to have a voice in the kind of jobs you are going to be getting. “
The executive order, however, is not without its detractors. While some Republicans in Congress say that the president’s actions are illegal, some Democrats argue that it doesn’t go far enough in protecting all undocumented immigrants. Coller noted the unclear status it gives those who qualify under the executive order — promising not to deport them, but no guarantee of citizenship.
“Coming from an immigrant family, this lack of permanency is where my heart sinks a little bit,” said Coller. “I know that it has to be that way because of the nature of the politics around immigration and how this had to be played out, but to me it is always a little bit disheartening when it’s not a permanent thing.”
The executive order also does not provide assistance for workers that have been in the United States for less than five years. That would include the more than 5,000 migrant workers hired each year in Wisconsin to work in dairy farms and the 5,000 additional migrant workers employed elsewhere in food processing and agriculture.
Last session, Zamarripa introduced a bill that would allow all undocumented workers to access driver’s licenses. She plans to introduce that bill again when the new state legislative session begins in January.
“We have to continue to push these issues to the forefront so Wisconsin recognizes and celebrates the diversity of the state,” Zamarripa said. “But also, I introduced these bills so that I hope that I’m motivating and inspiring our Latino and immigrant communities to get out and vote. That is what’s really going to push these politicians at the end of the day.”
Zamarripa ultimately believes immigration reform is possible and that it is not as politically polarizing as it seems.
“I know that it exists, there is bipartisanship on this issue,” she said.
She particularly took offense to a statement that Governor Scott Walker made during his recent reelection campaign. When he was asked his opinion on immigration reform, he replied that immigration was not an issue that the voters cared about.
“We’ve got to see leadership within the Republican Party really embrace this issue,” she said. “There are politicians that think they have constituents who don’t care about immigration or who are anti-immigration. So I think they think they are playing to their electorate. We need to prove them wrong.”
Coller reflected on how the lack of knowledge about the Latino community due to some of their immigration statuses feeds into the lack of understanding of the need for reform.
“We are the unspoken community out here,” she said. “And by that I mean that we aren’t able to advocate as much as we would because we are often times living in the shadows and not wanting to speak out about our circumstances. So it’s kind of a catch-22 in that regard.”
Ultimately, Coller believes the president’s executive order, and any future immigration reform, is a win proposition for the entire Madison community, including the business community. One of the many things Coller does at Centro Hispano is provide job training and connect employers with workers.
“Once we present the evidence that there is a large population of people that are currently able to work and are able to apply for jobs, I think that shifts the conversation to try and attract those people into businesses,” she said. “If there is one thing that comes out of all this is if the tone in how we speak about our families changes. I would really love it if people were to understand our community better, know more about their backgrounds, and change the tone of how they speak about us.”
--Carousel Bayrd is Vice Chair of the Dane County Board and hosts "A Public Affair" Tuesdays at noon on WORT (89.9 FM). She lives in Madison with her husband and two children.
