Immigrant advocates want to see a change in who controls the debate

Published: 2008-03-04

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After the failure last year of a bill that seemed so close to passing that people started planning how to implement it, supporters of comprehensive immigration reform are regrouping, preparing to take on their opponents who have been dominating public debate on the issue. Frank Sharry, a leader of the comprehensive reform movement and longtime director of the National Immigration Forum, is leaving that organization to launch a new one, America's Voice, with the goal of "taking off the gloves" in responding to opponents of comprehensive reform. "There is a concerted effort by the opponents of immigration to demonize immigrants," Sharry said at the annual gathering of Catholic social ministry workers in Washington in late February. "They use talk radio and distorted facts. Those who demonize don't have the facts, but they have had the upper hand in the debate." One oft-cited claim by those who want more restrictions on immigration, that immigrants are responsible for rising crime, was refuted by new reports by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Immigration Policy Center in Washington. The California study found that although people born outside the United States account for 35 percent of the state's adult population, immigrants make up only 17 percent of the prison population. Even among those most likely to be convicted of crimes, men ages 18-40, U.S. natives were 10 times more likely than immigrants to be jailed, it found.

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