Comments on the Asian and Latino Exclusion Act of 2007

Here are a couple comments are received on my post of yesterday labeling the White House-Sentate compromise the Asian and Latino Exclusion Act of 2007:

I agree with your characterization of the act as another Asian / Latino Exclusion Act.  One further argument against the point system – even if you upped the points for families, you’d still only be getting family members with the highest levels of education and English fluency – in that sense, I’d argue that the point system still accomplishes it’s job of class based social engineering – which seems like a crazy thing for democrats to give in to. They are, in a sense, selling out the future (fundamental shift to right in immigrant population) for a short term, dubious gain in the present (a highly conditional legalization program – for instance, I wonder what conditions must be met before the border security proviso is fulfilled??)

There’s no question in my mind that this is analogous to the structure of the Chinese exclusion act whereby only merchants but not workers were excluded – isn’t the present reform act operating under the exact same class-based ethos?
Malcolm Yeung
Staff Attorney
Asian Law Caucus

I work with countless naturalization applicants from Mexico who become voters in the United States. The cut off of family immigration categories may in fact discourage them from applying for naturalization, and I think right-wing Republicans are hoping that will happen if the compromise becomes law.

Eric Cohen
Immigrant Legal Resource Center

bh