SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 17 (OneWorld) - Politicians in Washington are debating the issue of immigration this week. Many Democrats want to create a guest worker program through which undocumented immigrants would be able to earn legalization over time. Conservative Republicans have their own ideas--from stepping up deportations, to building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, to punishing employers who hire undocumented workers.

Speaking alongside Mexican President Felipe Calderon Wednesday, President Bush said he would work with Congress to pass a law that "will respect the rule of law" and "respect humanity."

But across the country those political machinations have been overshadowed by a series of raids carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service of the Department of Homeland Security.

In Colorado, raids at area meat packing plants and a cleaning service have scared away a large percentage of migrant workers.

"We've seen a good 40 percent of the workforce decrease," Harold Lasso of the Denver day labor center Centro Humanitario told OneWorld.

"We hear from the local farmers that they lost a lot of manpower," he added. "The people who stayed in the fields are working double shifts. They're trying to make up for the loss of the workforce."

The state of Colorado has responded with a plan to employ prison labor in the fields. Under the plan, farmers would pay the state a wage of about $10/hour for each inmate. Prisoners would get the state's standard 60-cents-a-day credit for prison labor, while the rest of the money would go toward their housing, food, transportation, and guards while they are working.

Lasso thinks that's an "immoral" idea.

"On one hand you arrest the workers, and then when they become prisoners you send them to the fields to work," he said. "That's like modern slavery."

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took away more than 800 people in February and March. The raids were widespread and diverse across the region. They occurred outside schools, near subway stations, at homes, and near workplaces.

ICE said the raids were part of "Operation Return to Sender" and targets undocumented criminals and immigrants who are avoiding deportation proceedings.

But immigrant rights groups and many elected officials saw the situation differently. In the Silicon Valley town of Redwood City, ICE agents stopped Latino parents at random while they dropped their children off at an elementary school.

Afterwards, the city's Mayor Barbara Pierce told OneWorld, "there was a drop-off in enrollment," which she called a "cause for concern."

Pierce added the raids made her city less safe.

"The way we keep our entire community safe--immigrants, undocumented, everyone--is by people feeling comfortable calling the police," she said. "If there's a fear of the police, we can't keep them safe."

In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom released a statement in both English and Spanish condemning the raids.

"These raids jeopardize the public health and safety of the city by instilling fear in those who may come forward with information about a crime or those who are in need of medical treatment," the statement read.

Arnoldo Garcia of the Oakland, California-based National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said the entire controversy points toward the need for what he calls comprehensive immigration reform.

"What's at stake is the way our country is being shaped," he told OneWorld. "Is it one that's going to be based on equality and fairness--that's colorblind?"

Garcia noted that in California, one in four residents is foreign-born. "Whatever happens to that one fourth is going to affect the other three fourths," he said.

Harold Lasso of Centro Humanitario said immigrant rights activists will continue to pressure lawmakers to give undocumented immigrants a way to become legal.

© Independent Media Center
Last year, millions of immigrants rallied around the country on May 1st. The demonstrations forced Congress to shelve a proposal that would have made it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant in the United States or to help those who remain in the United States illegally. It would have also required churches and non-profit organizations to demand proof of legal status before providing charity and it would have mandated the construction of a giant fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

This year, Lasso said, immigrants will stage a week-long economic boycott. "Hopefully, Congress will feel the pressure and do something before the year ends," he said.