By David Cruz
Correspondent
There are around 8 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. labor force. They are a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, so critical are they to the U.S. economy that their absence would bring our economy to a halt.
Newark Councilman Augusto Amador represents Newark’s Ironbound community. His office sponsors regular citizenship classes and offers economic and legal assistance to those who are here without papers.
“The undocumented community is extremely important to the economy of the local community. If we do something to adversely affect the lives of those folks I think we are going to suffer the consequences,” he said. “Lately, we’re beginning to see a lot of people from Central and South America especially coming to Newark and replacing that type of labor that came in the 50s, 60s and 70s from western Europe.”
A new study from the Pew Research Center found that New Jersey is one of seven states that has seen its population of undocumented immigrants increase over the past four years. The numbers here went from 450,000 in 2009 to 525,000 in 2012.
For immigrants — documented and otherwise — the frequent first stop in this country is large cities like Newark. And the main reason for that is probably exactly what you’d expect.
“Some family members have already settled here,” noted Chia-Chia Wang, organizing and advocacy director for American Friends Service Committee. “You know, people come to reunite with their relatives or family members, so that means that very likely there are some infrastructures here that attract more immigrants to come.”
Wang says she’s excited to hear what President Obama will say on the immigration crisis tonight. The president will address the nation about steps he will take by executive order that will likely affect millions of undocumented immigrants and their families — as well as the rest of us.
“We must not forget that the U.S. Congress has not done its job to actually reform the immigration system, which is broken, and which is the permanent solution to immigration for this country,” she said.
Giancarlo Tello came to the U.S. as a 6-year-old, his parents arriving without authorization. A 2012 executive order by President Obama that established DACA — deferred action for childhood arrivals program — allowed him to stay. He’s been an advocate for young people in similar situations and says he hopes Obama will be bold tonight, but, “I’m anticipating that President Obama is not going to go as big as he should go,” he said. “He’s going to try to cover 3 to 5 million people perhaps who are undocumented but that’s still 3 to 5 million out of 11 million people.”
Not enough for immigrant advocates and probably too much for White House critics, the inevitable result of another congressional punt.