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Shadow workers: illegal aliens at center of tense debate, legislation.

Article Excerpt
America's infrastructure--from railroads to bridges to dams--was built on the backs of immigrants. Their work is memorable, evidenced in skyscrapers, subways and neighborhood churches.

They filtered through Ellis Island, documented and given papers approving their admission to America. They were seeking a better life.

The work performed by 12 million of today's immigrants is nearly invisible. They toil in the dirty jobs that go begging--construction laborers, grounds-maintenance workers, fast-food workers, busboys, maids and housekeepers, according to a report released March 7 by the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington, D.C.-based research group.

These are the undocumented workers, the "illegal aliens," who have found themselves at the center of a dispute where votes as well as lives hang in the balance.

The Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, also known as H.R. 4437, was passed Dec, 17, 2005. Its purpose is "to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security and for other purposes." It's the "other purposes" that has a lot of people, undocumented or otherwise, demonstrating across the nation.

"If this bill passes and I hope it doesn't, I will be a criminal because I will continue to do what I've been doing up till now," helping Hispanic immigrants assimilate into the community, said Maria-Cinta Lowe, executive director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury. Mexicans make up about half of the 12 million undocumented workers in the nation. "We do need reform. It took me less than a year and $60 to become a citizen 30 years ago. Now it is more and more difficult and now it's best to hire a lawyer" to help navigate the bureaucracy.

"I think this is the most horrendous bill ever presented in our House. It is based on bigotry and hate."

Lowe's reading of the bill, as well as the thousands of others who have protested, is that anyone caught helping an undocumented worker would face felony charges. F. James Seusenbrenner Jr., the bill's author, says their interpretation is incorrect and that is not the thrust of the legislation.

"It may not be the intent, but Congress is not the one that's going to be interpreting the law; it's going to be the court,"...