Believe In America.com

butterbean · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2271

Five years after Sept. 11, 2001, immigrants are caught dead center in the debate over tightened national security and tougher immigration laws.

"(Immigrants) want to be able to call America home," said Ali Noorani, whose parents came to the United States from Pakistan in 1971. "Every day, I feel like it becomes a little less possible. That's a sad thing to say."

In years since the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, immigration reform was hitched to national security as officials pitched plans from blockading the Mexican border to offering a guest worker program for immigrants.

According to the Census Bureau, a total of 33.5 million foreign-born people live in the United States and make up more than 11 percent of the population.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 11 million illegal immigrants live in the states, a figure growing by roughly 400,000 per year.

More than 604,000 immigrants became naturalized citizens last year, according to Homeland Security, including 22,000 who reside in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, civilian groups such as the Minutemen have staked out the Mexican border while Congress debated revamping the nation's immigration laws.

Immigrants nationwide took matters into their own hands with an organized day off from work to demonstrate their importance to the U.S. economy earlier this year.

But some local immigrants are caught between the desire to express themselves and the worry they will be labeled anti-American.

"I think post 9/11, we've lost the freedom of expression," said Elsie El Dayaa, a Norwood resident who immigrated from Lebanon at age 16. "Anyone who speaks out is unpatriotic. That's not true."

Some say U.S. foreign policy -- especially in the Middle East -- has made it harder to forge relationships across the globe.

"The U.S. is headed in the wrong direction. It is really losing its effectiveness and its credibility around the world," said Siddiq Abdullah, a Framingham resident originally from Pakistan.

Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition in Boston, said politicians "muddy the debate" between national security and immigration reform.

"The victim of that debate is the immigrant community," he said. "Immigration laws are out of whack with reality and are unenforceable."

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http://www.milforddailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=99040