Coalition pushes for path to citizenship

90 elected officials from N.M. sign letter of support for proposed addition to economic recovery bill

Immigrant advocacy groups and their supporters rallied around the nation Wednesday in support of an effort that would give millions of undocumented immigrants, including an estimated 60,000 in New Mexico, a direct path to citizenship.

Hoping to speed past the obstacles that have bogged down immigration reform for decades, Democrats included the proposed legalization measure in a wide-ranging $3.5 trillion economic recovery package that will be considered through a process called “reconciliation.”

The specifics of the proposal are still being drafted, but it calls for granting

permanent residency to undocumented immigrants who are essential workers, have temporary protected status or are so-called Dreamers, who were brought into the country as children, as well as their families.

Las Cruces City Councilor Gabe Vasquez, a first-generation U.S. citizen, called the legalization move “one of the biggest opportunities” he’s seen in the immigrant rights movement.

“We have a real shot at this, this time around,” Vasquez said during a virtual news conference with other elected officials or their representatives, part of a nationwide media campaign to urge Congress to give millions of undocumented immigrants a shot at citizenship through economic recovery legislation.

“Our hardworking advocates and communities have been fighting for this for decades, with no results, and we have to seize these opportunities when they come,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez is among 90 elected officials in New Mexico, from state legislators and mayors to school board and city council members, who signed a letter to President Joe Biden and others in support of the legalization effort. All 90 are believed to be Democrats.

“All of these local elected officials know the impact that immigrants have in our local communities, particularly during the pandemic and particularly during what we think needs to be an inclusive recovery,” Marcela Díaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, an immigrant and workers rights organization, said after the news conference.

“In order to be a robust recovery, we need an inclusive recovery,” she said.

The elected officials from New Mexico also signed a letter to Biden and Democratic leaders from a bigger coalition of officials nationwide who support the legalization measure.

The letter states there are an estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants working in construction, agriculture, food services and production, health care and other essential industries “who have risked their lives and the lives of their families to keep our nation running during one of the most challenging periods in modern history.”

“They are our constituents and our neighbors. They make up the rich fabric of the communities we represent,” the letter states.

Elizabeth Arevalo, legislative director for U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, said the House Judiciary Committee is writing the immigration portions of Biden’s Build Back Better plan.

“Over the next couple of weeks, the Judiciary Committee and the other committees in Congress will continue to finalize the details of that plan,” she said during the news conference. “Our hope is that these [immigration] provisions will stay intact and that they will end up in the final bill that Congress ultimately sends to President Biden to become law later this month.”

The reconciliation process allows Congress to enact legislation with a simple majority vote and also prevent a filibuster, according to the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization.

“Because Democrats have 50 seats in the Senate — plus a Democratic vice president — reconciliation is a way to get a tax-and-spending bill to the president’s desk even if all 50 Republicans oppose it,” David Wessel, a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings, wrote on the nonprofit’s website.

Hilda Sanchez, a school board member in Roswell, said the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants is long overdue.

“Their contributions to our community and our economy go unrecognized,” she said. “We need a fair and efficient immigration system so that undocumented immigrants can join the mainstream of society and stop living in fear.”

Vasquez, the Las Cruces city councilor, said he comes from a mixed-status family and that the legalization effort is “very personal.”

“A robust recovery in the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic and in New Mexico can only happen if we finally legalize our workers, our families, our relatives and friends who have made an investment in this country [and] who contribute in so many more ways than just economically,” he said. “When their ship rises, our ship rises.”