New Citizens Weigh In ON Immigration Debate!!!!

[hampster 0]

Hi All,

I was reading the news this morning online and saw this!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/wcvb/20070606/lo_w...63bF2mAPiTFHX0V

New Citizens Weigh In On Immigration Debate

Wed Jun 6, 6:47 PM ET

As legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws barely survived a challenge, immigrants from around the world became the Unites States'

newest citizens in Boston on Wednesday.

NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported that voting 51-46,

the Senate rejected an amendment to bar certain criminals from legal status,

and instead, adopted a more limited list of criminals.

Boston's new citizens, hailing for 41 countries,

said they cannot wait to vote and they are watching the debate on immigration

intently because their journeys have been complex and difficult.

I've been here since I was 6 years old. I took me about 21 years.

It took 10 years for my family to be reunited," said Daphne Germain,

who came to the U.S. from Haiti.

"Immigration is a very complex issue because people come into

the United States for all different types of reasons."

Picking up the piece of paper declaring citizenship

often requires more than a decade and thousands of dollars.

What do the new citizens think of those who have not gone through the process?

I know there's bad people and the terrorist thing, but I'm an immigrant.

There's good people who need be here,

they need to work and support their families.

Tough, tough question," said Diana Villa,

who came to the U.S. from Colombia.

It's actually very important to make everybody legal.

Government needs to track everybody," said Srivatsa Manjunath,

who came to the U.S. from India.

There are so many hard-working people here not to steal other people's jobs,

but trying to get a better life, trying to get a chance of a new beginning,

said Lucy Encarnacion, who came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic.

Cheers

Paul