By Patrick McGroarty
Reporter Staff

The fate of more than 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States hangs on the outcome of a debate raging in Congress and the national media. When the dust settles, any bill to come out of Congress will have a profound impact on Dorchester, the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in a city where 25 percent of residents are foreign born.

Local politicians and immigration advocates have announced their position on the melee of competing legislation, and some attended a March 28 rally at the Boston Common that drew 7,000 demonstrators in favor of legislation that will legalize the status of undocumented immigrants. As pundits and advocates debate the merits of competing Senate bills, undocumented immigrants wait anxiously for a resolution.

Chari Cohen Oliveira, a Newton resident and former UMass-Boston student, and Pat, an undocumented Irish construction worker living in Quincy (Pat asked that his last name be withheld to protect his identity) know they will feel any changes acutely.

Chari, 30, met her husband Enivalvo, an undocumented Brazilian immigrant, while working as a waitress at a restaurant where he was a chef. The couple was married in 2002, and soon had two daughters, Arielle and Amanda. In 2004, when Amanda was just three months old, Enivalvo voluntarily returned to Brazil because 2001 changes to immigration law decreed that to begin the path to legal residency, he would have to return and apply for a visa in his home country. His initial application has since been denied, and his family has seen him for a total of only eight and a half months since.

Pat, 46, came to Massachusetts three years ago on a temporary holiday visa. He says that as public opinion towards immigrants has shifted, his situation has gotten more difficult. He no longer has a driver's license, and soon the insurance on his carpentry van will run up.

"I want to live in America, but if I don't get something soon, I'll have to go back."

THE NATIONAL DEBATE

Late in 2005, the House passed a bill that toughened legal standards for undocumented immigrants. But that bill will have to be reconciled with one produced by the Senate, and that body is in the middle of a heated debate that began when a proposal championed by Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona cleared the Senate Judiciary committee on March 27. That bill would legalize the presence of undocumented workers who arrived America before 2004 and place them on a "path to citizenship." The same path would also be opened to approximately 400,000 foreign workers allowed to enter the country each year.

The bill lacks the support of the required 60 votes, in part because of an alternative bill filed by Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee. Frist's bill eliminates the path to citizenship and guest worker program, and would bring fines to employers who have hired undocumented workers. His proposal would also nearly double the number of green cards issued annually to 290,000.

As the Senate pushes to reach an agreement, local politicians and immigration advocates have begun to stake out their own position on the controversy.

MAKING POLITICS LOCAL

On March 8, At-large City Councillor Felix Arroyo spearheaded a City Council resolution , recognizing the dignity of all immigrant residents.

"The Boston City Council opposes any efforts to transfer federal immigration responsibility to state and local officials, since these proposals might damage relationships with immigrant communities," says the resolution. "Asking local law enforcement to check immigration status would tax our already overburdened police department and might make immigrants more fearful of cooperating with law enforcement and reporting crime."

The resolution was passed unanimously, but it angered Boston residents like Marty Hogan. Hogan ran unsuccessfully for at-large city councillor in 2005 and plans to launch a second campaign in 2007.

"To let people in illegally is a slap in the face to people who came through legal means, like my great grandparents," said Hogan. "We don't know who's entering this country, we don't know what their background is, or what they intend to do here."

Hogan added that the wellbeing of immigrants and their families is also a concern. Should they be injured in America they may not have any healthcare coverage, and their children may not have access to decent educational opportunities.

"People I've spoken with are glad somebody is standing up for the other side, instead making this a one-sided of issue," said Hogan.

State Representative Martin Walsh, the son of Irish immigrants, praised the Kennedy-McCain legislation, but cautioned against opening the door too widely.

"There are many undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and Boston that are here to work hard and raise a family," he said. "In the bill right now, there's open room to allow undocumenteds the opportunity to become citizens every year. However, I think there should be some tenets in this bill that if undocumented people are committing crimes or forging documents, penalties have to be there. I don't see the harm in having some teeth in this legislation."

Local advocates like Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, were more concerned about the effect of increased legal penalties for undocumented immigrants.

"What is happening in the Senate could change the make-up in Dorchester for years to come," said Noorani. He is especially frustrated with elements of the House bill that would give city police jurisdiction to enforce immigration laws.

"My concerns lie with the young immigrants who can make a bad decision at any turn; shoplifting becomes a deportable offense. So does misspelling your name on a naturalization form."

Noorani helped organize the recent rally on the Common, and he spoke Tuesday at a second gathering at the State House. Those gatherings have drawn other neighborhood activists, including Duy Pham, executive director of the Vietnamese American Civic Association, and Ricardo Neal, director of the Freedom House in Grove Hall.

"The expectation was 1,000 people, and 7,000 showed up [on the common]," said Neal.

"It's hopeful. What you're seeing is that finally this issue has grabbed the nation's attention. Even with configuration of the guest worker program, a six-year road to something being approved, there is some thought that there are opportunities."

THE LONG ROAD HOME

When Cheri Oliveira met her future husband, she was working part time at the restaurant and studying neuroscience on a full academic scholarship at UMass-Boston. But as the process of procuring legal immigrant status for Enivalvo grew more complicated, her energy and focus were redirected.

"He had to forfeit his driver's license, so I was driving him to two jobs, and the kids to preschool and daycare," said Oliveira.

With her husband in Brazil, she says she has lost seven eighths of her family's income; she's been forced to go on MassHealth and to support her family with food stamps. But more tragically, she says, her daughters have missed the chance to grow up with their father.

"I can't understand why he was denied permission to return when he has a wife and two babies who need him," she said. "He's missing this most important time to spend with his kids. They need not just to know he loves them, but to feel his hugs and kisses, feel the warmth that a father gives to a child."

One tenet of the Frist bill would require undocumented workers who entered the United States without a visa to return to their country for three to ten years before beginning the process towards legal residency. If that language stays in the legislation, Enivalvo could be in Brazil for eight more years.

Pat is excited about the Kennedy/McCain "road to citizenship," but worries that the tougher legal standards of the House bill could have him sent home for something as trivial as a speeding ticket. The stress of knowing that he could be sent home at any turn weighs heavy on his mind.

"My sister has been here 20 years and she was illegal for a while. I'm thinking of now, how did she love America so much?" said Pat. "It has a lot do with when you become legal. When you're a citizen, I think you love it more."