Green Party of Delaware
www.gpde.us
Michael Berg for Congress
Contact: John Atkeison, 302-345-0607
Berg for Congress Campaign
http://www.BergforCongress.us
April 17
Originally released April 12, 2006
Berg declares, "We are all immigrants," urges defeat of HR 4437 and guest worker proposals.
In the wake of massive statewide rallies attended by close to a million people, Michael Berg, Green
Party candidate for Delaware's House of Representatives seat, criticized proposals which
would criminalize immigrants or make them second-class members of the American workforce.
"We are all immigrants except for the Native Americans and Africans who were brought here as
slaves," stated Mr. Berg. "Immigrants have come to America for generations seeking opportunity
and a better life. We need to empower immigrants by allowing them to become citizens, join unions,
and vote, so they can improve their wages and living conditions."
Berg strongly attacked the House bill HR 4437 that would make undocumented immigrants guilty of
a felony for residing in the US, and imprison clergy or social workers who aided them. His
opponent, incumbent Republican Mike Castle, voted in favor of HR 4437. "Making immigrants into
criminals will only make it easier for employers to exploit them," explained Mr. Berg. "Instead we
need to allow immigrants to become citizens with the same rights as other Americans."
Berg compared provisions in HR 4437 to build a huge wall along the Mexican border to the old
Berlin wall that separated East and West Germany during the cold war. "Remember how the world
applauded when the Berlin wall came down, including our Republican president? How can the
current administration and lawmakers now advocate building a new Berlin wall separating our Mexican
brothers and sisters from their families?"
Berg categorically rejected the guest worker
compromise" plan circulating in the Senate. "Creating a sub-class of guest workers will
create an under-class in the American workforce especially vulnerable to exploitation," he
explained. "It will not benefit immigrants or American citizens, only companies that want
cheap, throw-away labor."
Michael Berg recognized the immigration poses special challenges for towns such as Georgetown,
Delaware, home to many poultry workers from Mexico and Guatemala, as well as schools attended
by immigrants' children. "Delaware's immigrants are hard working people who pay the same income
taxes that we all do," explained Mr. Berg. "The federal and state government should use these
taxes for programs that will help towns and school districts provide the services needed by
immigrants and their families."
"Americans are understandably nervous about what impact immigration will have on their jobs,"
explained Mr. Berg. He noted that some employers do use immigrants to reduce wage costs. "The
answer is not to make immigrants weaker and more vulnerable to exploitation," contended Mr. Berg,
"but instead to increase the minimum wage and to give immigrants the confidence to join unions and
become citizens so they can elect political leaders who favor better conditions for working
people." A program to create jobs by rebuilding the neglected American infrastructure -- like the
levies around New Orleans-- would be a way to create good jobs for all US residents, both
citizens and immigrants.
