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75–227 2015

LOS ANGELES: THE REGIONAL IMPACTS AND 

OPPORTUNITIES OF MIGRATION 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND 

COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

MAY 9, 2008 

Printed for the use of the 

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 

( 

Available via http://www.csce.gov 


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COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

SENATE HOUSE 

BENJAMIN CARDIN, Maryland, 

Co-Chairman 

RUSSELL FEINGOLD, Wisconsin 

CHRISTOPHER DODD, Connecticut 

HILARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York 

JOHN KERRY, Massachusetts 

SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas 

GORDON SMITH, Oregon 

SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia 

RICHARD BURR, North Carolina 

ALCEE HASTINGS, Florida, 

Chairman 

LOUISE MCINTOSH SLAUGHTER, 

New York 

MIKE MCINTYRE, North Carolina 

HILDA SOLIS, California 

G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina 

CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey 

ROBERT ADERHOLT, Alabama 

JOSEPH PITTS, Pennsylvania 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS 

DAVID KRAMER, Department of State 

MARY BETH LONG, Department of Defense 

DAVID STEEL BOHIGIAN, Department of Commerce 


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LOS ANGELES: THE REGIONAL IMPACTS AND 

OPPORTUNITIES OF MIGRATION 

MAY 9, 2008 

COMMISSIONERS 

Page 

Hon. Alcee Hastings, Chairman, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe ..................................................... 01 

Hon. Hilda Solis, Commissioner, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe ..................................................... 02 

MEMBERS 

Hon. Diane Watson, Member of Congress from the State 

of California ............................................................................. 11 

WITNESSES 

Reverend Richard Estrada, Pastor and Founder, Our Lady 

Queen of Angles Catholic Church .......................................... 04 

Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, Department of Chicana and Chicano 

Studies Associate Professor, UCLA ........................................ 07 

Lucy Ito, Senior Vice President, California Credit Union 

League ...................................................................................... 13 

Kerry Doi, President and CEO, Pacific Asian Consortium 

in Employment ........................................................................ 21 

Angelica Salas, Executive Director, Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles ............................................... 23 

Eunsook Lee, Executive Director, National Korean American 

Service & Education Consortium ........................................... 28 


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LOS ANGELES: THE REGIONAL IMPACTS AND 

OPPORTUNITIES OF MIGRATION 

MAY 9, 2008 

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE, Washington, DC. 

The hearing was held from 11:18 a.m. to 1:40 p.m. PST at California State University, Los Angeles, California, Hon. Alcee Hastings, Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, presiding. 

Commissioners present: Hon. Alcee Hastings, Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; and Hon. Hilda 

Solis, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in 

Europe. 

Members present: Hon. Diane Watson, Member of Congress from 

the State of California. 

Witnesses present: Reverend Richard Estrada, Pastor and Founder, Our Lady Queen of Angles Catholic Church; Raul HinojosaOjeda, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies Associate Professor, UCLA; Lucy Ito, Senior Vice President, California Credit 

Union League; Kerry Doi, President and CEO, Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment; Angelica Salas, Executive Director, Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles; and Eunsook 

Lee, Executive Director, National Korean American Service & Education Consortium. 

HON. ALCEE HASTINGS, CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON 

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you all for being here today. Certainly I 

want to thank my good friend and a person that I work actively 

with, our Congresswoman Solis. It’s really an honor for the Helsinki Commission to be holding a hearing in Los Angeles today on 

migration, a topic that is not only a center of the great debate here, 

but also in the sphere that Ms. Solis and I work in. 

I’m so anxious to get to our witnesses, and I’m going to pass over 

my responsibilities as Chair. I apologize. I didn’t introduce myself. 

My name is Alcee Hastings, and I’m the chairperson of the Helsinki Commission in the United States Congress. I’m from Fort 

Lauderdale, Florida, so I come all the way from yet another diverse 

part of our country. Actually, the congressional district that I’m 

privileged to serve is one of America’s most diverse districts in 

terms of the number of people that migrate there. But I am delighted that you all are here. I welcome all of our witnesses, and 

I’m sure that Congresswoman Solis will have a lot to say and will 

introduce our witnesses and we will hear from them. 


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I do encourage—the Helsinki Commission for the first time went 

green and, therefore, we don’t have an awful lot of paperwork that 

we distribute anymore—but I do encourage you to go to our Web 

site. I think you will find it fascinating. The report from this hearing will go up on the Web site for those of you; particularly the students here from Cal State and other universities, when you are 

writing those papers, come down on our Web site. You might find 

some comfort there. 

Thank you all for being here. Congresswoman Solis. 

HON. HILDA SOLIS, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON 

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Ms. SOLIS. Thank you, Congressman Hastings. I especially am 

grateful that Congressman Alcee Hastings joins with me to have 

this first historical meeting on migration with OSCE and Helsinki 

Commission. Some of you may not know what the Helsinki Commission represents, but several decades ago with the fall of the iron 

curtain, so to speak, countries came together with the leadership 

of the United States to talk, in general, about cooperation, security 

and democratization. 

I am very privileged to have been appointed to this particular 

group of different countries representing the United States, and it’s 

the first time that a Latina has ever had, I believe, a leadership 

position in the organization. What’s unique for us is both Alcee and 

I share common values and the belief that with diversity there is 

strength. As responsible members of Congress, and working with 

Parliamentarians is to try to talk about issues that often don’t get 

the ability to talk about thoroughly in the House of Representatives. This is one way of bringing out our interests, our responsibility to hear what is happening with this very important issue of 

migration. Some of you here may say, well, is it migration or immigration? It can be both. 

We have brought together here, I believe, a panel of people that 

can help shed some light on what the challenges are, what best 

practices exist, and also what some of the positive aspects of that 

migration are. The reason why we came here is because Los Angeles, to me, is the greatest incubator of where all these different 

forces come together, and we are our own Ellis Island, so to speak, 

that New York had that decades ago, centuries ago, and now Los 

Angeles is a port of entry for many, many people from across the 

western hemisphere and from other continents. 

I think it’s very important today that we hear from our witnesses 

who can talk very credibly about that experience and what we can 

take back and report back to our members of other parliaments. So 

the information that we gather here today will be put together in 

a report that will be shared with other parliamentarians at our fall 

meeting that will be held near Russia, Kazakhstan, which is a new 

developing country, but to talk about why it’s important to hear 

about the discussion of migration. You see it happening in South 

Africa, you see it happening in Morocco, in Spain, you see it happening in Ireland, you see it happening in England, you see it happening in the Middle East where Iraqi refugees, for example, are 

being driven out of their home and sent to other countries. Some 

are welcome, some are not. 


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Here, our experience is very unique. I know the bulk of the people living in the surrounding area come from Hispanic, Latino 

background, and we have been going through this experience, I 

think, since the birth of Los Angeles. So I know that we have much 

that we can add and much wealth and talent that we can share 

with other people in the world. 

I want to tell you very briefly that I’m excited to be here. The 

reason why I have been appointed was because my unique experience as a child of immigrants and a member of Congress who can 

speak and understand what that means as a value in a member 

of Congress. So I’ve been appointed by the OSCE as a special representative on migration. I will be delivering whatever information 

we gather here to that body of other parliamentarians, about 3- or 

400 that will gather, so it’s very critical that we begin this discussion. 

In many cases, other countries have been accustomed to only 

dealing with the administration, the current Bush administration. 

Obviously, Congressman Hastings and myself come from a different perspective, and we believe it’s important and critical for 

people to understand that there are differences of opinion, and in 

that difference of opinion, we believe that we can shed light on the 

positives of what is happening in our communities across the country, globally, but also the positive aspects that immigrants make to 

our great country. 

With that, I want to thank our panelists; I want to thank the audience. I know we have students from UCLA, from Cal State L.A., 

we have members representing different labor organizations, and 

we have different businesses, federations also representing different groups in our community, the religious community. I’m overwhelmed with the excitement that you bring to this discussion 

today. With that, I would like to begin with our first speaker, and 

this is going to be Father Richard Estrada who I have known for 

several years. He is the associate pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church, known to many here as La Placita in Los Angeles, the oldest church in Los Angeles. He is the founder and executive director of Jovenes, Inc. 

Jovenes, as you know, means young people, a nonprofit organization which serves homeless and at-risk immigrants and youth. 

Father Estrada received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the 

University of San Francisco and studies theological and pastoral 

studies at the Graduate School of Theology in Berkeley, California, 

the Mexican-American cultural center in San Antonio, Texas, and 

the Fred C. Nelles School in Whittier, California. He has spent over 

30 years of youth advocacy and program management working 

with high-risk youth in Los Angeles and is nationally recognized as 

an advocate for the less fortunate. He’s a champion of the humane 

treatment of immigrants, and I remember fondly him on many occasions asking me to attend with him on visits on the border to 

provide bottles of water for those migrants who were trying to come 

here and seek jobs, but more importantly to save lives for those 

that didn’t make it across that desert. 

I’m proud that last September Father Estrada joined me in 

Washington, D.C., as one of the first Hispanic, I believe, significant 


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individuals in this movement for immigrants and provided the 

opening prayer for the Congress during Hispanic heritage month. 

Thank you very much, Father Estrada. We look forward to hearing your testimony. If you can please begin. 

REVEREND RICHARD ESTRADA, PASTOR AND FOUNDER, OUR 

LADY QUEEN OF ANGLES CATHOLIC CHURCH 

Mr. ESTRADA. Thank you. My name is Father Richard Estrada 

from Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church. As a Claretian 

missionary, Catholic priest, and religious leader in the new sanctuary movement, I am grateful, Chairman Alcee L. Hastings, Representative Hilda Solis, and members of the Commission on Securities and Cooperation in Europe, U.S. Helsinki Commission for inviting me to testify on Los Angeles Regional Impact and Opportunities of Migration. 

Let me remind everyone here that the fundamental issues before 

this commission are nonpartisan and do impact the lives of thousands of people and families in Los Angeles. Please take what you 

hear today and work with your colleagues in Congress to seriously 

discuss and address legitimate concerns regarding the separation of 

immigrant families, the exploitation of immigrant youth, exploitation within guest worker programs, the protection of our borders, 

and curbing the flow of unlawful immigration. The Catholic church 

and fellow paid communities call for the caring for and the just 

treatment at all times from our elected officials on this very important issue. 

I am here today to share my personal experiences with immigrants, communicate the position of the Catholic church on immigration, and, by extension, immigration reform and the effects and 

opportunities presented by migration. My testimony will focus upon 

my firsthand accounts of the contributions made and continuing opportunities resulting from immigration, the role of the Catholic 

church and interfaith communities in immigration. 

In the 1980s youth advocates and myself became aware and concerned for Central American children who were fleeing civil war 

and arriving alone in Los Angeles. They would knock at the door 

of our church and ask for shelter. They were hungry, traumatized, 

and homeless. Our Lady Queen of Angels church at Olvera Street, 

the birthplace of our great city, better known as La Placita, small 

plaza, has always been an active and spiritual sanctuary for the 

Hispanic Catholic community. It was then that placita became a 

sanctuary church for our refugee sisters and brothers. 

At that time we discovered that public and private agencies were 

unresponsive to the needs of unaccompanied refugee children. A 

nonprofit organization was established to meet the needs of this 

population of youth. Jovenes, Inc. not only provided them with 

health and human services but advocated on their behalf. Jovenes, 

Inc., which means ‘‘youth,’’ continues to reach out to lonely, traumatized immigrant youth, when giving them hope and the tools to 

succeed; they become culturally integrated into society. 

Hundreds of homeless youth have become U.S. citizens and are 

responsible adults. Some examples of our success are Johnny, a 

Honduran and Hurricane Mitch refugee. He is now a youth counselor. Nettie, a Guatemalan civil war refugee, has been in the U.S. 


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Army and is an officer for the past ten years. Oswaldo, a Mexican 

immigrant, is a university graduate student. Bowong, a Vietnamese refugee, is a chef. These youth are living proof that, when 

given a helping hand, immigrants will contribute to the fabric of 

our society. 

Los Angeles is fortunate to have a coalition of churches, temples, 

nonprofit organizations, community leaders, elected officials, and 

labor unions who work together on behalf of immigrants. For the 

vast majority of immigrants, migration to the United States, including Los Angeles, is an economic and/or family unifying necessity. Churches’, synagogues’, and temples’ work in assisting migrants stems from the belief that every person is created in God’s 

image. 

From the Old Testament, Deutera, God calls upon his people to 

care for the alien because of their own alien experience: ‘‘So, you 

too, must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in 

the land of Egypt.’’ Taken from the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 

10, verse 17 to 19. It is for these reasons that religious leaders hold 

a strong interest in the welfare of immigrants and the ways in 

which our nation welcomes newcomers from all lands. 

This country has always been an immigrant nation. The Catholic 

church is historically an immigrant church, and like other faith 

communities, is present throughout sending countries. In the 

United States, more than one-third of Catholics are of Hispanic origin, and our church in this country is made up of more than 58 

ethnic groups from throughout the world, including Asia, Africa, 

the Near East, Mexico, and Latin America. 

The churches, temples, and synagogues have a long history of involvement in immigration issues; both in the advocacy arena and 

in welcoming and assimilating waves of immigrants and refugees 

who have helped build our nation throughout her history. Many 

faith-based immigration programs were involved in the support for 

and implementation of the Immigration Reform & Control Act, 

IRCA, in the 1980s, and those programs continue to serve immigrants today. 

As providers of pastoral and social services to immigrants, the 

growing partnerships between interfaith communities continues to 

give witness to and care for the human suffering occurring each 

day in our base communities of faith, social service programs, hospitals, and schools that have resulted from a broken immigration 

system which fails to uphold the dignity or protect the human 

rights of many immigrants seeking simply to improve their own or 

their families’ lives in our land of opportunity. 

We believe the current surge of separating U.S. children from 

their undocumented parents, apprehending noncriminals in immigration work site raids, and the exploitation of workers is immoral. 

The current immigration system is morally unacceptable and must 

be reformed. Indeed, we see peaceful members of our communities 

living in the shadows of undocumented immigration status. 

What is needed to respond to these problems is a true comprehensive immigration reform that will provide opportunities for 

legal status for the undocumented currently living in the United 

States that will lead to permanent residency and eventual citizenship. 


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A work permit is needed for undocumented workers presently residing in a nation with protection from employer exploitation. We 

must strengthen the goals for family unity that has been the cornerstone of U.S. immigration policy. These are the essential elements of the Catholic church and the broad network of interfaith 

communities proposed for effective, comprehensive immigration reform. 

Moreover, we need national policies that help overcome the pervasive poverty and deprivation, lack of employment, violence, and 

oppression that push people to leave their home countries because 

in the ideal world, for which we all must strive, migrants should 

have the opportunity to remain in their homelands and support 

themselves and their families. Addressing the root causes of migration is as humanitarian a mission as is reforming our own immigration system. 

We respect and reaffirm the right of our nation to secure our borders and to regulate immigration for the common good of all citizens. We also pray for the women and men responsible for enforcing the law, but we cannot ignore the human needs of immigrant 

workers and their families when the law fails to protect their basic 

human rights. 

The above principles will help guide this effort so that human 

rights and dignity of persons are protected. But this must be made 

clear to lawmakers: Enforcing immigration law in the absence of 

providing a path to legalization for the undocumented will be a 

monumental setback to reform. Simply stated, status enforcement 

provisions will work only in conjunction with the other aspects of 

comprehensive immigration reform, legalization and provisions for 

a work permit for undocumented workers. 

Deportation of 12 million people is unreasonable and immoral. It 

would divide families, create economic turmoil throughout our nation’s work force, and create fear on a massive scale. It will essentially create a police state environment. People will refuse to cooperate with police or report crimes in order to avoid suspicion as 

being illegal. 

When combined with a reasonable worker program and an ability 

to earn legal status, then enforcement-only provisions and increased border security will mitigate the amount and efforts of undocumented migration because enforcement agents will be able to 

concentrate their efforts on protecting the border and pursuing the 

decreased number of people smuggling drugs and arms and human 

trafficking. 

We are all pilgrim people. For more than two centuries European 

immigrants have travelled here in the hope of making a better life 

for themselves and their families. The same human hopes and 

needs are trapping a new generation of immigrants today, and as 

generations of past immigrants were successful, our newest immigrants will improve their lives and contribute to our nation economically, culturally, and socially. Let us not forget that it was our 

immigrant ancestors who built this country. 

Thank you very much. 

Ms. SOLIS: Thank you, Father Estrada. I failed to mention that 

each speaker or panelist will be given five minutes and after we 

will go through a series of questions and then we will go into the 


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next panel. I want to now welcome Dr. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, who 

is the associate professor of the UCLA Department of Chicana and 

Chicano Studies and the Cesar E. Chavez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction. Dr. Hinojosa-Ojeda is also the director of the 

Northern America Integration and Development Center and author 

of numerous books on political economy of regional integrations in 

various parts of the world. He has strong knowledge in investment 

and migration relations between the U.S., Mexico, Latin America, 

and the Pacific Rim. 

Dr. Hinojosa-Ojeda, welcome, and I’m glad you are able to join 

us today. 

RAUL HINOJOSA-OJEDA, DEPARTMENT OF CHICANA AND 

CHICANO STUDIES ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UCLA 

Mr. HINOJOSA-OJEDA. Thank you. My Congresswoman, you call, 

I’m here. Congressman Alcee Hastings, I’m pleased to see you 

again. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Yes, sir. 

Mr. HINOJOSA-OJEDA. First, I want to begin by commending the 

Commission for having this hearing here. It sends a very important 

message. This is a global issue, and it’s going to also increase on 

a global scale. My remarks which I presented to you reflects years 

of study that actually shows that the process of migration and remittances, combined are actually much more important to the future of the world economy than a lot of the discussions that are 

being held on trade, liberalization, and investment. 

If you look at the value of what immigrants provide to a world 

scale, on an annual basis, it’s more than $2.5 trillion. It’s the third 

largest economy of the world is basically what immigrants provide. 

Going forward, it’s going to be even bigger because we are expecting over two and a half billion people to leave the country side and 

move into cities. 

At the same time, we are having massive demographic implosions in the rich countries of the world. So both the demographic 

dynamics are there as well as the potential for very strong economic benefit. That’s the second point that I really commend the 

nature of the hearing on, not only the impacts but really the opportunities. 

Our research center at UCLA, and there’s many people from 

UCLA here today that are very excited about this and are engaged 

in research on exactly how it is that these issues can be quantified. 

How can we really make the point? Being supportive of immigrants 

is absolutely a moral issue. 

I completely agree with Reverend Estrada that it’s also one of 

economic necessity on a world scale. It’s one of fundamental importance that we get it right and the policies right. 

Ms. SOLIS. Can I interrupt a moment, Dr. Hinojosa? We have 

been joined by Congresswoman, the Honorable Diane Watson. 

Diane, we have begun our panel discussion, and we will let Dr. 

Hinojosa finish and then we will allow for questions. Thank you for 

joining us. Good morning. 

Dr. Hinojosa, please continue. 

Mr. HINOJOSA-OJEDA. Thank you, Congresswoman Watson, for 

joining us. 


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What I was saying is that specifically, if we look at the case of 

Los Angeles, it is a microcosm of what this potential economic benefit could be of doing the right thing on immigration, in particular, 

as well as the negative consequences of doing the wrong thing. 

Lately, you may have heard recently that there is a very strong 

focus on Los Angeles by Department of Homeland Security and 

ICE and on the raids here. We are now studying the economic impact of that. The mayor and business leaders made an important 

statement last week. 

I’m here to tell you that the economic study that was presented 

then and our analysis shows that that’s actually a very small 

underestimation of what is actually happening. Our estimation is 

that on an annual basis the undocumented population contributes 

$225 billion to the State of California, $80 billion to Los Angeles 

alone. So the economic impact of actually following through on 

what is the policy of this administration would actually wreak 

havoc, the worst economic depression in the history of the state. 

They are playing with fire, and this is, in a sense, an opportunity, 

again, to make clear to the American people the necessity of dealing with the immigration issue and doing it right. 

Our analysis also shows that if we do it right, if we do move towards a process of legalization and, more importantly, the economic 

incorporation of immigrants out of the shadows into the economic 

mainstream, the economic benefits far outweigh anything that we 

have now conceived, the world bank and what everybody tells us 

about, as trade liberalization. 

Doing the right thing on immigration, legalization of immigrants, 

creating the proper flow for them to come because they are needed, 

creating the right policy framework is a win-win proposition. This 

is not an issue of simply being kind to strangers. It is something 

that is of vital economic importance for our nation to incorporate 

immigrants. We have a history, a very, very important history, that 

when we do bring in immigrants and we fully incorporate them, 

great things happen. 

One of the studies we recently completed is a 20-year impact of 

the Immigration Reform and Control Act, IRCA, which was bipartisan legislation, but there’s very little tracking of what these legislations have actually done. What it did immediately was a win-win 

situation. It raised wages and raised the social floor and did away 

with most of the easily exploitable sweat shop environments, even 

in Los Angeles, in the first six years of IRCA. 

Also, very significant, the biggest drop-offs in history of undocumented crossing of the U.S. and Mexican border occurred right 

after legalization for over six years without spending the billions 

and billions of dollars that is currently being talked about. So the 

priorities are all wrong with the Congress people in Washington in 

terms of these issues. Legalization first. That is really the vital 

issue. 

Second, questions of economic incorporation are of incredible 

vital importance both here and abroad. What we have been doing 

is an analysis of the economic contributions of legalized immigration. For example, in the State of California—over the last 25 

years, we finished this study. It’s an astonishing number, $5.5 trilVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:58 Aug 03, 2015 Jkt 075227 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A227.XXX A227

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lion, has been added by the foreign-born workers. In Los Angeles 

alone, $1.5 trillion. That’s a lot of zeros. This is very significant. 

What happens also when you legalize people, when you really 

bring them into the economic mainstream? When we did our analysis 20 years later of IRCA, you see the profile of the typical undocumented family before legalization and now where they are now 

20 years later. Many of their children are here in the room as students at UCLA, for example. But shifting dramatically to an 

unbanked environment to the banking sector that in itself is the 

single major contributor of the economic benefit. 

By the way, in this country there are over 60 million people that 

don’t have access to financial services, and this is extremely important. This is an issue that cuts way beyond undocumented immigration and immigrants in general. It affects all our communities. 

The bringing in of people into the financial sector is, in a sense, 

the most vital issue. 

Now, particularly, I wanted to mention the issue of remittances. On a world scale, there are now over $300 billion of remittances. 

That is more than all direct foreign investment and international 

financial assistance. Specifically in Mexico, we are talking over $25 

billion, far surpassing direct-born investment and aid. This is 

money directly from our communities supporting communities 

abroad. We are actually taking care of business at the grassroots 

level in terms of having a binational, transnational economic strategy, but we are doing it the wrong way. 

These billions of dollars are moving in the forms of cash out of 

our cash economies here in our communities which do not let us 

have the multiplier effects we should be having here to cash economies in rural areas which actually distort those economies and actually move the likelihood of more people moving here faster. So 

what’s the answer? The answer is not only legalization, absolutely 

we need to do that, but we need to move especially towards embracing a new generation of technologies. 

We haven’t had a chance to talk about this lately, but the work 

we are doing now is looking at how the cell phone, which all of us 

can’t live without? There are now four billion cell phones on the 

planet. Last year it was 1.2 billion cell phones that were bought 

mostly by poor people. The technology is now available for this instrument to be the basis of a banking of the unbanked and a movement of remittances directly into micro-financial institutions, both 

credit unions here as well as micro-financial institutions abroad. 

I know Lucy is going to talk about this as well. We worked with 

the California credit unions for many years, and what we are doing 

is working with people like Professor Muhammad Yunus, who won 

the Nobel Peace Prize in Bangladesh, and networks of financial institutions in Latin America who are now part of the hundred million who now have micro-finance institutions. 

We are now on the brink of a major breakthrough of taking this 

huge transnational economy of migrants here and of their families 

abroad and they are now part of the solution. They are not the 

problem. They are part of the solution of global economic development. If we bring the people out of the shadows into a legalized 

framework and empower them with technologies for this new generation of banking the unbanked, the economic impacts far outVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:58 Aug 03, 2015 Jkt 075227 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A227.XXX A227

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weigh—the full study is being made to the Commission, and we do 

it here and many other countries around the world—far outweigh 

anything that will dole around of trade liberalization, something it 

will produce. That’s all very positive. 

But really focusing on migration, remittances are of critical economic importance on a global scale. I really would like the Commission to take this up in its next hearing. A lot of the studies we have 

been doing, as Congresswoman Solis has mentioned, Los Angeles 

and North America in a global comparative perspective. Europe, 

since this is a commission that is embedded in the history of Europe, actually has a great deal to tell us. We did an analysis of 50 

years ago. The income gap between Spain and Europe was the 

same between Mexico and the United States. Today, that gap has 

disappeared between Spain and Europe, okay, as well as Ireland as 

well as Portugal. They have done economic integration right. 

One of the critical things was these were all migrant-sending regions. Spanish migration, everyone knows about the Irish migrations, the Greeks. There’s no more migration from these areas. 

They are now part of an integrated affluent Europe. What was the 

major difference? It turns out, the European regional development 

funds, as Congresswoman Solis knows, and we worked Councilman 

Torres to create the North American Development Bank, which 

was an attempt to get North America to think about things in a 

new way here. Europe, they did it right. It had a very positive impact. 

It is interesting. Our studies have now shown that what really 

made a difference in Europe and Spain, in particular, was migration and remittances. Legal migration and remittances going back 

into the full banking of the Cajas Popularis in Spain. The fascinating multiplier effect of remittances created small businesses 

and jobs, that shaped a vibrant grassroots economy. We can do this 

right now. We can do this right here. It’s of vital importance specifically to L.A. There are a million undocumented families in Los 

Angeles. We are the undocumented capital of the world. That’s not 

a great thing to say. 

But, on the other hand, it’s an immense opportunity. If we do 

things right, and we have to be at the forefront of saying the policies have to be changed, they have to be changed now. We have the 

most to gain from doing that. This will separate us beyond the divisiveness of the raids and conflicts that people think about immigration and really see it as a brilliant example of the American vision 

of fully giving people rights and having them be fully incorporated 

is both political and moral, but it’s also a great economic benefit 

and can lead the way in terms of how we enter this century and 

meet this most basic challenge of economic integration with four 

billion people that are extremely poor on the planet and we are 

going to have to deal with it. 

This is actually immigration, and remittance is doing the right 

thing. It is an extremely vital part of moving forward. Thank you 

very much. 

Ms. SOLIS. Thank you. I’m delighted to have been joined by one 

of my favorite congressional members representing the Greater Los 

Angeles area. That’s Congresswoman Diane Watson. She and I 

spent time in the state senate, and I recall when I ran first for that 


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seat, both she and another member of congress were so welcoming 

in having the first Latina placed there next to her. We spent many 

years working on the health committee and did some very good 

things back in our days. 

But I’m delighted she is here. She is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and she is a member of the House Oversight Government Reform Committee. Before she was elected to the 

House in 2001, she was also our United States ambassador to Micronesia under President Bill Clinton. She has had a legacy here 

in Los Angeles serving as state senator and also one of the first African-American women to serve on the L.A. Unified School District. 

She comes with a great deal of wealth and experience, and I’m so 

delighted that she could be here with us this morning. Please, 

Diane, take a moment to speak to us. 

HON. DIANE WATSON, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE 

STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Ms. WATSON. Thank you so much. I want to welcome the chairman, and I like to call him ‘‘Judge,’’ Alcee Hastings, and our cochair and my good friend Hilda Solis for having me take part. I did 

attend one meeting before you became the chairman. I hope to get 

back on the commission because I think that this is the commission 

that does the important work globally. I am so pleased to have 

come in at the time that Dr. Ojeda was speaking because I’m an 

alumni of this university. 

I think you summarized what migration and the focus on migration means to the global economy that we are in internationally. 

We cannot hide from the fact that we must receive the talents and 

skills of those who choose to come here because they do enrich our 

economy and our country. We are no longer a country that can live 

in isolation. 

As Hilda can tell you, we are surrounded, particularly here in 

California, with people whose attitudes are, ‘‘Keep them out.’’ But 

we are finding our work force is diminishing, those with skilled 

sets are diminishing and we are finding that the salaries are not 

keeping pace with the rise in the economy. We have got to figure 

this out because the people who come here legally or illegally, they 

come to work. They take the jobs that Americans no longer want 

to do, and I’m highly aware of this. 

What the panelists need to know is that the political will in Congress is not there to deal with this issue of immigration in its complexity. We say many things, but when it comes down to working 

out solutions to be able to utilize the people who come here but to 

have them come through a door of acceptance has not really been 

attended to like it should. So I want the audience to know we are 

tied in to the rest of this globe, we are tied into it economically, 

and we will be tied into it culturally. We have got to understand 

the cultures and the beliefs of other groups, and particularly those 

who are not as fortunate as we. Otherwise, we become the target. 

I’m not going to go into that piece of it, but we have to know how 

to live in this global economy that we are in, we have to know how 

to trade, and we have to know how to invite people. 

As I was reading through the materials, I think the best suggestion that has been made out of all of those who have had input 


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today is that we probably need to expand green cards. Let people 

who are not citizens come and get a green card, but we need to 

monitor them to be sure that when time runs out they return. I 

think the ICE operations where they come in and do the raids and 

they split families and they take workers off is an indignity and 

crime. Let me put it like that. 

The migrants that come to Southern California in the area where 

we live, we work, and we represent come to work, and the remittances that they send back home keep people alive right across the 

border. I have explained to my constituents that there are no lines 

in the sand. People who once were in control of this area feel that 

they can go back and forth across the border. 

Fences will not do it. So we have to get out of this ideology that 

you put a fence up and you block it and you keep somebody out. 

We are going to have to control the flow over these borders, and 

it takes those at the highest level of government to do that. The 

highest level of government. Our president and I think we are 

going to have a new president quite soon, and they are going to 

have to negotiate. 

But I am so pleased that the Helsinki Commission is looking at 

the impacts regionally. As you know, California as being a nation 

state, the sixth largest economy in the world, is very, very important when we consider because many, many of our immigrants 

come from over the Pacific, Southeast Asia, over the border, and 

they migrate within the United States from the colder, over industrialized northeastern—they are bypassing Texas and coming here. 

For the Helsinki Commission to look at the impact of migration 

is a very important focus, Mr. Chairman, and I want you to take 

that back to the commission, because we can be anywhere in this 

globe in nine or ten hours, as you know, and a free trade issue we 

have to look at to be sure there’s balance in trade and that human 

rights are observed on both ends. 

When you come here to Los Angeles and you take a look at migration, you are going to get a composite of all of the complexities 

that we deal with when we talk about migration. So I want to 

thank the panelists. I came in to hear exactly what we needed to 

hear. Would you come to Washington and help us work through 

this immigration bill? 

I would ask the chairperson and the co-chair if we could invite 

people to e-mail us their ideas about how we can enhance the immigration proposal that the Hispanic caucus has already put forward. Obviously, we are not ready to deal with it and that’s why 

it hasn’t come to the floor and hasn’t passed. We are not sure that 

all of the aspects of immigration are considered. But I certainly 

welcome the input from our witnesses and people in the audience 

on how we can enhance not only California, not only this region, 

but the United States and our relationship to the rest of the world. 

Thank you so much for holding this hearing today. I’m going to 

stay as long as I can, and that’s about the next 20 minutes. We 

have a tough schedule today. 

Ms. SOLIS. Thank you for your statements, your very eloquent 

statement, Congresswoman Watson. 

Our next speaker is Ms. Lucy Ito. She is the senior vice president 

of research, communications, and credit union development for the 


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California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues. She is well versed in 

remittances and previously worked with the World Council of Credit Unions for 14 years where she provided management oversight 

for International Remittance Network. 

The issue of remittances is particularly important to understand 

given the critical role that they play in the development of countries. It is even more important to understand today given the impact of the slowing economy and the impact that that will have on 

those developing countries as well. 

So, as you begin your testimony, we look forward to hearing what 

solutions and advice you have for us. Thank you, and welcome, Ms. 

Ito. 

LUCY ITO, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA CREDIT 

UNION LEAGUE 

Ms. ITO. Thank you, special representative Solis and Congresswoman Watson. I’m honored and it’s a very big honor and a pleasure to be here this morning. As Congresswoman Solis mentioned, 

I’m here not only representing the California Credit Union but also 

the International Credit Union System, which has helped educate 

the United States Credit Union System on the importance of remittances. 

Instead of reading my testimony, which is quite long, I’ve prepared one for you. There is a handout that I think will enable us 

to get through the points more quickly. If I could ask Alex to please 

provide those. As the handouts are being distributed, let me make 

a comment about the immigration context for remittances. Dr. 

Hinojosa-Ojeda mentioned the degree of immigration that is taking 

place worldwide. 

According to our country’s last census bureau, 10.3 percent of the 

U.S. population is foreign-born. Depending on what estimations 

you look at today, we are talking about 28 to 30 million recent immigrants, foreign-born immigrants. It won’t surprise anyone in this 

room when I make the observation that it’s the youngest, the poorest, and the most recent immigrants who typically are the ones 

sending money back to their homes. It’s not a coincidence that this 

same group also happens to be the most unbanked population both 

here in this country and relatives of theirs back in other countries. 

If you look at the table on the top of what would be Page 2 in 

your handout, Congresswoman Solis mentioned the Credit Union 

International Remittance Network, IRnet. About ten years ago, because of work that the World Council of Credit Unions was doing 

in Guatemala and El Salvador, we were very shocked at the rates 

that were being charged to remit money back then. 

A few of us were talking earlier about 40, $50 to send $100 to 

another country. It was because of that that the California Credit 

Unions and World Council of Credit Unions and other folks decided 

to experiment, could we remit funds for a more affordable price. 

Back in 1997, we introduced IRnet where there’s a flat $10 fee. We 

are very pleased that the market has matured, recognized that 

that’s a rate that’s out there, and today the going rate is $11 per 

remittance. If you look at the chart that is at the top of Page 2, 

you’ll see in 2007 the IRnet system remitted $578 million from the 


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U.S. to other countries. That equates to 1.5 million transactions in 

2007. 

This year, in 2008, it’s going to be very interesting to see how 

the U.S. economy affects remittances, but right now for first quarter of 2008, $127 million has been remitted through IRnet, and 

that was a total of 350,000 transactions. That’s for the first quarter 

of 2008. If we stay on that track, it looks like we are going to be 

at about the same level that we were for 2007. In a couple remarks 

I’ll be making about global remittances, there’s reason to believe 

that that may taper off due to the U.S. economy. 

I wanted to make a few comments about IRnet before I talk 

about global remittances. It’s not to tout IRnet. It’s what we hope 

other remittance transfer programs will do. Something the credit 

union remittance program does is, in the receiving country, it does 

not require a recipient to have a bank account in that country. The 

remittances are delivered to a person’s home or—in that case they 

get it in the form of a check, or they pick it up at a credit union 

or some other site. 

This is important because in other countries, developing countries, the unbanked population is estimated to be 80 percent of the 

population. If you don’t have a bank account, you can’t receive traditional remittances so it’s important that there are some nontraditional remittance options. 

Secondly, often people are cheated with the exchange rates they 

are quoted here, but when they remit the money, it is not the same 

exchange rate that is used when the money arrives to its destination. Credit unions are making sure that rate is guaranteed until 

delivery. 

Thirdly, often foreign recipients are charged a receiving fee at 

the other end. That’s terrible. That adds to the ridiculousness of 

gouging people. Dr. Hinojosa-Ojeda mentioned that new technologies coming through the IRnet system at the moment is more 

traditional. People bring cash, send it out. Besides the mobile 

phone technology that’s coming up, I’m pleased that card technology is going to enable us to send remittances using debit cards 

in other countries, so we would be delighted to keep you posted on 

that technical development. 

Let’s move to remittances globally. I was really pleased to hear 

the figures before. The World Bank does not estimate all remittances but only those that are recorded and they can see that there 

was a lot of unrecorded remitting happening. In 2007, the World 

Bank estimated that $240 billion was remitted around the world, 

up from 221 billion in 2006. These recorded remittances equal two 

times international foreign assistance to developing countries. 

So let’s say international aid is approximately $120 billion a 

year, remittances are double that amount. The World Bank estimates that these remittances amount to two-thirds of foreign direct 

investment globally, and certainly remittances are the largest and 

least volatile source of external finances in many a poor country. 

In Southern California here, we have many diverse communities, 

many represented from Latin America and Caribbean countries. 

That’s certainly the largest region that’s receiving remittances estimated at $60 billion in 2007. The Inter-American Development 

Bank has made this observation. They have said that remittances 


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may be more than doubling the income of the core 20 percent of 

the population in Latin America and Caribbean. 

Turning to our last page here, I did want to share with you observations that have been made about the economic impact in other 

countries. You will see on this page that I am only taking the top 

four or five examples of each. 

You look at GDP in a country like El Salvador. The remittances 

that go into El Salvador total 15.1 percent of GDP. In an extreme 

case, Haiti remittances account for 24 percent of GDP in that country. Nicaragua, 20 percent of the GDP is the amount of remittances 

in that country. If you look at participation by local population in 

receiving remittances, in El Salvador 28 percent of the El Salvadorian population receive remittances, Guatemala 24 percent, and 

Mexico 18 percent. 

Congresswoman Watson made this comment about how everything is interconnected in the economies. That is so true. A very 

disturbing observation that we have made is that if you take Mexico alone from 2002 to 2006, each year remittances grew by 20 percent, so you would expect in 2007 another 20 percent. Instead, for 

the first three quarters of 2007, remittances to Mexico had only 

grown by 1.4 percent as compared to 20 percent in the previous five 

years. 

Looking at why that might be, the conclusion has been that the 

weak job market in the U.S., especially in construction where a lot 

of Mexican immigrants are employed, that has contributed to this 

decrease, and also the tighter border controls that are being practiced have meant that fewer people are coming here, so fewer remitters are here to send back remittances. 

I will end my comments there on remittances, but I did want to 

thank all three of you as co-sponsors of HR 1537, the Credit Union 

Regulatory Improvements Act. I’m not pitching for it here, but if 

that passes, that will enable us to open credit union services to 

more underserved communities. 

Another problem—yes, there are limited services, but often immigrants are also victims of pay day lending. This would allow credit 

unions to offer pay day lending alternatives to underserved communities. Thank you. 

Ms. SOLIS. Thank you very much. Because of schedules here, I 

want to accommodate Congresswoman Watson and will ask her to 

go ahead and ask a series of questions for five minutes and to direct her questions to the panel. 

Ms. WATSON. You said something, Ms. Ito that just caught my 

attention, pay day lending and it’s such a rip-off, and it also was 

mentioned to send monies, remittances of $100, you are going to 

pay 50. 

We are going through, at this particular time, with the banking 

market out there and the different items they come up with to really gouge people, so when we talk about the complexities, we have 

to include how remittances are gouged, and they are making money 

and the persons at the other end who are the recipients really lose. 

You were talking about the credit unions and you mentioned that 

there would be a card. Could that card be then converted into the 

cash of the country of the recipient? 

Ms. ITO. Yes. 


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Ms. WATSON. It’s like the telephone card? 

Ms. ITO. It would be a debit card that you put in the machine 

of the receiving country and get local currency. 

Ms. WATSON. Very good. 

Dr. Hinojosa, and I called you Dr. Ojeda. I know those are hyphenated names so I can take my choice, right? 

Mr. HINOJOSA-OJEDA. That’s right. Thank you. 

Ms. WATSON. How do you view the future in terms of migration, 

immigration, legally and illegally on this area of the country, 

Southern California? I know you’ve done a lot of research. I’ve followed you over the decades, and what do you see for the future? 

Mr. HINOJOSA-OJEDA. I think the question also is what would be 

the optimal. I think it’s inevitable that we are going to have to 

bring in a significantly larger share of the workforce going forward 

from immigration. 

In fact, if we don’t have immigration, we will be having a substantial decrease of close to ten percent in the population without 

immigration. So we need to be growing not only positively in terms 

of the workforce size, but as you were mentioning, also the nature 

of the skills. 

This is a combination of both bringing in the right types of workers, recognizing how we are integrated with certain parts of the 

world, but making sure when they get here they are as quickly as 

possible brought in with full rights and economic opportunities to 

make them the most productive as possible. 

Remember, we have, in a sense, a reservoir here. IRCA, another 

thing it did in terms of skills, as soon as legalization took place, 

people’s own spending on their own capital, human capital increased by over 200 percent, GEDs, ESLs, and on-the-job training. 

We actually are looking at productive increases from that that 

more than outweighs this positive impact, which are wage increases. We can bring in, and we are estimating, again, about 12 

percent to 14 percent of the growth in a positive way has to come 

from immigration, and it can be done at a higher wage and skill 

level. If I can say one quick thing about the technology issue. This 

is something that we have spent a lot of our time lately on, working with what is the problem, why don’t we have the banks and 

the credit unions and now the cell phone companies? 

There are the debit card solutions. That is definitely part of what 

we already sort of studied and worked with the Ford Foundation 

and California Credit Union League, and that’s a major advancement. But the problem is the credit unions—the debit cards, you 

need ATM machines and POS, and most of the countries don’t have 

that, and that’s what’s interesting about the cell phone. 

El Salvador is a hundred percent cell phone ready today in the 

smallest villages. So marvelous things are happening even in the 

so-called backward countries like Kenya. 

Ms. WATSON. You triggered something in my mind when you said 

cell phones. I started going to Kenya in the early ’80s. When you 

get away from Nairobi and you really get out in Masai territory 

and people are walking in their costumes, I come back 20 years 

later and everybody is running around the bush with a cell phone. 

Mr. HINOJOSA-OJEDA. You know what they are doing now is they 

are using their cell phones to send money within the network. 


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That’s what I’ve been doing, traveling the Philippines. As another 

very important example, we don’t have it here. It’s absurd. Right 

in Latin America—in L.A., everyone’s got two cell phones, right? I 

should say we are and the students all here are part of a project 

where we are Google-mapping every single money remittance location, check casher, and pay day lender. What we are doing is we 

are measuring the amount of money that’s being taken out of the 

community through this unnecessary cost. Ms. Ito said its $10. 

There’s no reason it’s not less than $2. The technology is there to 

do this. 

We’ve analyzed the economic impact of moving toward this new 

type of technology and giving people—anybody who has a phone 

number can essentially have a virtual bank account now. That 

technology is available now. The economic-multiplier effects, we are 

studying it right now in the L.A. areas, and some of your districts 

are part of our study areas. We have multiples of economic growth 

that can happen as a result of this empowerment. In the villages, 

it’s more than ten times. A village that moves towards having their 

money arrive, not in cash, but with a local micro-finance institution 

that can then lend money for productive activities, things that the 

whole town associations spear-headed now can be done on a much 

broader scale. It’s a very, very important time. We really need to 

focus having that as an integral part of migration and remittance 

negotiations, next year and take advantage of this huge new interesting possibility. 

Ms. WATSON. What is really frustrating to us is that we know 

the politics of all of this. And rather than a resolution to these 

problems, we get tied up with the politics of it. Believe me, that’s 

where we are right now. I mentioned before it’s going to take a 

whole new way of thinking about this under a different kind, not 

ideology, but an open mind, thinking how we play into this global 

atmosphere in which we find ourselves now. We need not kid ourselves. It’s all political. 

What happens with this border to the south, we don’t have the 

same problem with the north? Have you noticed that difference? So 

it operates in an arena that is not always authentic. I want to say 

this to Reverend Estrada. I’m sorry I missed your testimony, but 

I was reading the background on this hearing and I know many of 

our churches have become sanctuaries. 

Mr. ESTRADA. Yes. 

Ms. WATSON. And there is a counter-movement, and we see it 

where we work, too, for giving sanctuary to people who are here 

without the correct credentials. Can you remark at this point how 

strong the sanctuary movement, I know that our bishop here has 

offered our archdiocese as a sanctuary and getting a whole lot of 

political pressure. Can you give us a view into the very near future 

as to this movement? 

Mr. ESTRADA. The movement is a national movement, so there 

are 52 different faith communities that are part of the sanctuary 

movement. We believe its saving lives. We don’t want families to 

be broken apart. Our hierarchy is not fully, I guess I would say 

supportive, supportive in the sense of how we are doing it, to take 

in a family or a person into your church for a period of time that 


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has a deportation order. It’s a little bit controversial. But I think 

morally it’s the right thing to do. 

Out of 52 faith communities in the country who are stepping up 

to the plate, and it’s all about faith, all about what you believe is 

right and moral, but the real work is trying to change policies, trying to change the current policy. 

In Los Angeles, each one of our five families who have been 

working really hard with attorneys to try to get them to reopen 

their case, to reconsider, so that they could stay here with their 

children because they have—each one of the families has a U.S.- 

born citizen, and we are adamant about the separation of families. 

The heroes here are the people that say, ‘‘Yes, I will go into sanctuaries.’’ It’s a sacrifice for them. Is it going to grow and make a 

big difference? It will in a small way, but it’s people of faith standing up for what they believe in. 

Ms. WATSON. Thank you so much to all of the witnesses, and I 

appreciate you holding this regional hearing here so we can air 

from a different point of view than what we get in Washington, 

D.C., all the time. 

Ms. SOLIS. I’m going to defer to my colleague, Alcee Hastings and 

the Chairman, to begin his round of questioning. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you very much. I won’t take much more 

time because of the fact that we have additional witnesses. Early 

on, the counsel general of Honduras was here, and I’d like it if we 

could recognize her. I know there are others. I also know that our 

dear friend and colleague is going to have to leave because of previous commitments she had told us about. Diane, I want to thank 

you. 

Particularly, let me see a show of hands of the students that are 

in college. Okay. You know the term, using a sports metaphor, of 

an impact player. Well, you today, if you have not seen or heard 

of Diane Watson, you have seen a real impact player in the lives 

culturally, socially, economically, and politically of this community. 

She is indeed a living legend, and I’m glad she is with us today. 

Thank you, Diane. 

Ms. WATSON. Thank you very much. 

Mr. HASTINGS. I only have one question, and I’ll try to approach 

it from the standpoint of Father Estrada. You and I have lived a 

few decades and we have seen and heard immigration discussions. 

How do you compare the current migration debate with that of previous eras? Is there any specific advice or factors that you would 

urge that we as policymakers look at? That will be my only question. 

Mr. ESTRADA. Our church, La Placita, Queen of Angels Church, 

is right in the center of the city. In the ’30s, there was this immigration, these immigration raids. They say that immigrants would 

run into the church seeking safety, sanctuary. There have been immigration raids, immigrants that were not wanted and so forth. 

But I believe that today it’s a lot meaner. It is a force that is immoral. It’s an issue that has to be looked at as a moral issue. 

I believe that the faith communities have a lot to say here. There 

is a growing movement of interfaith communities that really are 

stepping up to the plate, organizing, are coming together, and realVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:58 Aug 03, 2015 Jkt 075227 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A227.XXX A227

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ly being a witness. I guess to answer your question, it’s a lot meaner, it’s a lot deeper, and it needs to stop. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you very much. Madam Chair, I know we 

have other witnesses and I don’t want to get too far into that. I 

won’t ask additional questions, and I’ve taken all your information 

to heart, Ms. Ito. 

Ms. SOLIS. I want to mention to the audience that we will be 

posting some questions for our witnesses, and they can respond 

and we will post that on the Web site. But I wanted to thank you, 

Father Richard, for coming. You mentioned three individuals that 

you have worked with that have been now successful that may 

have come in without documentation. What kind of resources did 

you use to make that happen? How did that come about? 

Mr. ESTRADA. Well, we are a nonprofit organization, 501(c), and 

we develop programs for education, and we don’t ask, ‘‘Are you documented or undocumented?’’ We create a program for advancement, a program of learning English to learning how to get a job, 

et cetera, health programs, and so forth, and they become part of 

a population that we work with, and that’s how we do it. 

Ms. SOLIS. What is your source of funding, primarily? 

Mr. ESTRADA. Primarily, we get government funding from the 

city, from the county, we get private funding, and the future 

doesn’t look that good. There’s a lot more work that has to be done. 

We have here with us our program directors of Jovenes, Inc., and 

our grant writer that are here today. Yes, it’s not only Jovenes but 

organizations that reach out to youth and families that are getting 

the brunt of the economic situation. 

Ms. SOLIS. Thank you, Father Estrada, for your work. I wanted 

to pose this question to Dr. Hinojosa. We talk a lot about remittances and the importance and the economic strength that provides 

to the sending countries in terms of the benefits that they get. 

Have you seen in your review of how remittances are used if 

countries, for example, like Mexico or maybe Indonesia or AsianPacific communities, if there’s any movement to utilize those remittances to build an infrastructure? Because I think that’s something 

of great concern, and people in Europe are talking about that as 

well. 

As we see people migrating from, say, old Eastern European 

countries, as an example, they are coming up to work in Spain and 

Greece and Germany, and they are sending that money home, and 

in some cases there is a system to send that money—to bank it 

back from the sending country, and they actually created an infrastructure of hospitals, housing, things that actually add stability to 

the country. 

Can you reflect on that? Have you seen any of that? 

Mr. HINOJOSA-OJEDA. I got off the plane this morning. We were 

in Mexico meeting with various state governors. What we are doing 

is something very interesting. These are, of course, monies that belong to families and they need it to live on. But if you move it 

through a banking system and you create an infrastructure of saving and investment, that investment can then have very significant 

local impacts. 

One of the things we know about migration and remittances is 

that people are migrating to save money, to try to save money. 


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What don’t exist are basically institutions that produce products for 

savings. One thing we are doing for various states now is to create 

a development savings bond for remittances so people can, through 

their cell phone, send the money back and put a little bit of it into 

a savings account which they are receiving a return of investment 

and then that gets matched through this notion of 3 for 1. 

Instead of 3 for 1 for individual projects which again was breaking through, as you know, Zacatecas and various other communities, now we can take it to a larger level. We can create local savings bonds for development in the States, and with the federal government and the international development institutions leveraging 

that, and then those funds can be used for a wide variety of things, 

infrastructure for housing, and also for productive activities. 

We are doing something quite interesting now where women’s cooperatives in Mexico are producing USDA certified organics and 

nopales, and everybody loves nopales, right? The market for these 

foods is now bigger in the United States than in Mexico, and now 

this creates new small business opportunities here for companies 

to import this working directly with economic advancement on a 

scale unprecedented. That’s how you can leverage these remittances to really provide economic activity on a sustainable basis 

and a tax base which can then support the infrastructure investments and be educational. 

There’s a way out of here. There are absolutely clear cases. The 

answer goes directly to our streets in our neighborhoods, and that’s 

what we have to focus on, create, at the local level, working with 

the churches and credit unions, all this networking and we can 

solve the problem like we run our daily lives here. 

Ms. SOLIS. I think maybe later on I can get a response from Dr. 

Hinojosa and Lucy Ito. I’m curious about the amount of money that 

goes untracked through money orders, and I think about my own 

family when my mother years ago would issue a money order, send 

it back to Nicaragua, and are we able to track that? 

That also is evidence that there is economic strength and stability that is being exposed to those Third World countries. And not 

just Central America, but I know it’s in the Asian-Pacific regions 

as well. Those are things I’d like to get information back on. Let’s 

thank the panelists. This is a very good discussion. 

With that, we will transition to our second panel of witnesses. I’d 

like to ask Kerry Doi to come forward, Ms. Angelica Salas, and 

EunSook Lee, please come forward and join us at the table. We are 

going to dive right in. We are going to begin with our first panelist, 

Mr. Kerry Doi, who is the executive director and president of PanAsian Consortium in Employment, better known as PACE, the 

largest Pan-Asian community development organization in California. 

PACE was founded back in 1976 with an initial grant from the 

City of Los Angeles to address the employment and job training 

needs of the Asian-Pacific islander communities. In the last 30 

years, PACE efforts have broadened to include workforce development, housing, business assistance, and early childhood education. 

Two years ago I was proud to have the opportunity to join PACE 

to honor 11 women, who were small business owners, with checks 

of $1,000 to help them begin their new companies. I looked at it 


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as micro-loans, and so I know that it’s a very successful program. 

With approximately 300 employees speaking 26 different languages 

and dialects, Mr. Doi will speak to us about the services such as 

housing programs, job training placements, and youth education 

and business and economic development. 

KERRY DOI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, PACIFIC ASIAN 

CONSORTIUM IN EMPLOYMENT 

Mr. DOI. Thank you. Thank you very much, Representative Solis 

and Mr. Chairman. It’s an honor to be here, and this is a really 

important occasion. So because it was so important, I wracked my 

brain about what kinds of things to say and came up with about 

30 minutes of remarks. But in the interest of time, I will try to 

highlight it and cut it down to five minutes. I did submit my written testimony to the panel. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you. 

Mr. DOI. So I will try to rip through it quickly and highlight 

some major points. 

As Congresswoman Solis said, we are proud to have been of service for over 30 years in Los Angeles. And since 1976, we have 

served more than half a million illegal people living in the Los Angeles area. Of these, almost two-thirds have been and continue to 

be people who are new to the United States. Having worked with 

hundreds of thousands of immigrants over the past 31 years, we 

believe that we learned a little bit about what works and what does 

not, and we welcome the opportunity to share some of what we 

have learned with the commission. 

As you know, the County of L.A. has one of the largest and fastest-growing immigrant populations in the United States. Immigrants bring a huge surge of energy and possibilities to the entire 

area. Founded in ’76 by leaders in the API communities in L.A. 

know that having a job is critical to economic prosperity. 

Over the years we have added programs that provided complementary services to our primary target population. Today we 

offer, as the Congresswoman said, a full range of programs and 

services to help families achieve economic self-sufficiency including 

energy conservation, early childhood education, affordable housing 

development, asset building and financial education, and small 

business development. 

What makes our program work to empower immigrants to use 

their skills, energy, and ingenuity to fully engage with their new 

country and make a positive contribution? First and foremost, we 

believe that you must respect the heritage and experience. More 

than 85 percent of our staff speaks one or more languages in addition to English. It’s more than language. It’s also important to understand the culture and life experience of our clients. One example is the problem of getting the immigrants to use banks as has 

been stated earlier. Many come from countries that have unstable 

or nonexistent banking systems. Many escaped from repressive 

governments, and as a result, not only do they not understand our 

banking system, they don’t trust any banking system. 

Traditional means of outreach and program improvement won’t 

work in this case. Trust, word of mouth, referrals and experience 

over time with friends, relatives, and neighbors are essential eleVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:58 Aug 03, 2015 Jkt 075227 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\A227.XXX A227

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ments to be able to effectively reach deep into immigrant communities and be considered an organization to be trusted. So what 

kinds of programs and resources and services are needed? 

PACE has identified eight program elements that we offer that 

we believe are critical to effectively empower migrant communities 

and promote prosperity. No. 1, English as a second language, because overcoming the language barrier is a must for people to fully 

participate in our system. No. 2 is financial education, as has been 

stated earlier, and I don’t want to beat that point. But No. 3, asset 

accumulation, is important, and building on financial education. 

There are many existing government and private bank programs to 

help low-income people leverage their resources and promote savings. No. 4, job training, as stated earlier, is vital to economic selfsufficiency. No. 5, business development, because many immigrants 

become entrepreneurs because it offers the most immediate and 

sometimes the only way for them to earn a livable wage. No. 6 is 

affordable housing. The high cost of housing in Southern California 

is legendary and true. No. 7, comprehensive family services. Finally, mentoring and advocacy. The transitional trauma that impacts individuals and families who immigrate to a new country 

cannot be underestimated. 

This is exacerbated if the reason for the immigration is because 

of war, persecution, political instability, and a hundred other reasons. Our staff and clients have stories of their journey to America 

that would make you weep, brothers who disappeared, children 

who drowned in sight but out of reach, families living in foxholes 

and eating bugs. 

That they arrived in the United States at all is a miracle. Many 

of the men and women in PACE have shared that experience. It 

infuses what we do with an appreciation, a respect, and a humanity that transcends programs and funding. We work very hard to 

identify programs that share our passion for low-income people of 

all ethnicities and nationalities who want a chance, and we try to 

give them that chance. 

So what proactive policy development could government undertake to help PACE do what we do better and for more people? 

Eight critical areas immediately come to mind. One is direct job 

training funding to community organizations that do not trickle 

down through the state and local government. No. 2, expansion of 

the Community Reinvestment Act to include the new, emerging 

class of banks that are currently exempt, such as insurance companies or retail-sponsored banks. No. 3, restoration of the Community 

Reinvestment Act to again include banks that have been exempted 

over the years. No. 4, elevate and increase affordable housing responsibilities for government-sponsored enterprises. No. 5, we need 

Congress to insist on continued enforcement of Title VI of the Civil 

Rights Act of 1964, which says that ‘‘Simple justice requires that 

public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races, colors, and national origins contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial color or national origin discrimination.’’ No. 6, in light of Title VI, we need Congress 

to be diligent in their economic support programs such as those 

being discussed right now in response to the mortgage foreclosure 

crisis be equally available to people in need in all communities. No. 


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7, increased funding for refugee and immigrant services and inclusion of funding for services for political and economic asylees. Lastly, we need for Congress to have the kind of vision that sparked 

the community development movement in the 1960s. Foundations 

are trying, banks have stepped up to the plate, and the federal government’s commitment to communities dwindles each year. 

In closing, I’d like to reiterate that America is a nation of immigrants. They provide a vibrancy, resilience, and energy to our nation. Programs that serve to ease their way into life in America are 

not expenses; they are investments, investments in America’s 

greatest asset, our people. 

Ms. SOLIS. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ms. Angelica Salas, 

who is working with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights 

of Los Angeles, known as CHIRLA since 1995. CHIRLA was initially created to help coordinate between directors, service providers, and advocacy groups dedicated to advancing the human and 

civil rights of immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles. CHIRLA’s 

staff of 30 runs over a dozen programs to help educate immigrants 

about their rights, offer legal aid referrals, train immigrants to become leaders, and assist in employer/employee wage disputes. They 

are also an important voice for humane policy at the local, state, 

and federal level. 

Ms. Salas, welcome, and thank you and please give us your fiveminute testimony. 

ANGELICA SALAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COALITION FOR 

HUMAN IMMIGRANT RIGHTS OF LOS ANGELES 

Ms. SALAS. First of all, I want to say, Madam Representative, 

thank you so very much and also Congress for hosting this hearing 

and for having this forum. It’s so important that we get to voice 

from our perspective from the ground what is happening in immigrant communities and also to celebrate all their many contributions. 

CHIRLA was formed in 1986 to advance the human and civil 

rights of immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles, promote harmonious multi-ethnic and multi-racial human relations, and through 

coalition building, advocacy, community education and organizing, 

empower immigrants and their allies to build a more just society. 

I speak before you today to testify to the great and open secret in 

our midst that is the often unheralded fact of the immigrant contributions to the County of Los Angeles despite the many obstacles 

in their way. 

As an immigrant rights organization, CHIRLA has been witness 

to the powerful presence of immigrants in our county and their 

amazing contributions to development and transformation of Los 

Angeles. The future of Los Angeles hinges largely on how we integrate and provide better opportunities to the millions of immigrants in our midst. 

The Migration Policy Institute, in a recent report on immigrant 

integration, revealed that Los Angeles County remains the largest 

immigrant metropolis in the nation with more than one-third of its 

9.9 million residents and nearly half its workforce comprised of immigrants. 


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Consider also the following data from an upcoming report that 

we are releasing today called ‘‘A Closer Look: Fortress of Immigrants in Los Angeles,’’ and I will provide you with a copy. In this 

report we have compiled over six years of information collected 

from different reports that have been distributed within the last six 

years, but often I think are shelved and we don’t really understand 

the great information. This report basically says that the City of 

Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries who 

speak at least 224 different languages. 

Los Angeles County has the largest population of Asians in the 

entire United States with a total of 1.3 million people. The county 

has the largest population of Hispanic or Latino at 4.7 million people. By 2050, these populations are expected to grow 200 percent 

and 187 percent respectively. Additionally, over 30 countries have 

the largest representation of their nationals outside of their home 

country here in Los Angeles. Examples include the largest population of Mexicans, Central Americans, and Iranians. 

The percentage of Los Angeles County residents age five and 

older who are foreign born as of 2006 is 35.4 percent. In addition, 

63 percent of children in Los Angeles County are members of immigrant families. However, 87 percent of these children are themselves U.S. citizens. The percentage of Los Angeles County residents who speak a language other than English at home is 53.6 

percent in 2006. 

Immigrant worker populations in Los Angeles County are concentrated in a variety of sectors which vary according to their immigration status. Immigrants as a whole are highly representative, 

in contrast to the general population, in manufacturing and personal service trades. 

In terms of percentages of the labor force as a whole, immigrants 

in Los Angeles County, including the undocumented, make up 59 

percent of the service sector workers, 80 percent of production of 

manufacturing workers, 67 percent of construction workers, 62 percent of transportation workers, 61 percent of installation workers. 

And even in fields where immigrants are less likely to work, 

their numbers are significant. They account for 30 percent of professional workers, 38 percent of office support workers, and 34 percent of management and business workers in Los Angeles County. 

Los Angeles County is an immigrant county. 

As of 2005, first-generation immigrants have started at least 22 

of Los Angeles’s 100 fastest-growing companies. Immigrant entrepreneurs in Los Angeles have founded nationally successful firms 

such as El Pollo Loco, Panda Express, and LuLu’s Desserts. 

According to one estimate, immigrants are starting as much as 

80 percent of all new businesses in Los Angeles. Throughout Los 

Angeles, immigrant entrepreneurs are revitalizing whole neighborhoods, opening up business and creating jobs, not just for themselves but for all Angelinos. 

According to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, immigrants play a vital role in the fashion, furniture, and 

food-processing industries, the main engine for the local economy. 

Immigrant participation in these industries produces millions of 

dollars in tax revenues and accounts for tens of thousands of jobs. 

The three industries together created 495,000 jobs for immigrants 


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and U.S. citizen workers and paid $103 million in local sales taxes 

in 2006. 

CHIRLA works with low-wage immigrants in the underground 

economy. These are workers who are day laborers, who are household workers who care for others’ homes and others’ children and 

their elderly parents. 

We also work with street vendors. These are men and women 

who many of them and many of the successful restaurants actually 

started by people who first started as street vendors, individuals 

who sell food and who sell wares on the streets of Los Angeles, a 

very thriving economy. 

Unfortunately, these are also the industries in which we see 

some of the worst abuse, day laborers who work many, many hours 

a day who don’t get paid, not even for the work that they do, 

household workers who, after we did a report in 2004, we found 

that some of the average wages for some of the household workers 

was $2.37 an hour for their work. 

Street vendors who are not allowed to work in the city of Los Angeles, even though they pay business taxes, even though they pay 

permits for their carts, yet in the city of Los Angeles it is illegal 

to be a street vendor. A worker cannot be illegal. It cannot be a 

crime to work. 

However, there are possibilities, and we have seen that through 

the creation of worker centers and through the organizing of workers in all industries, even the informal economy, this can change 

and workers can demand higher wages, can demand that their 

labor rights be represented, and together they can voice a change 

to their industries and change policies that basically keep them 

poor. 

We have also launched a partnership, now I think in its fourth 

year end, Playo, which basically is a collaboration of the regional 

Hispanic chamber of commerce. It includes most of the Latin American consulates, the Central America consulate chapter. We have 

here one representative, the Mexican, the diocese and the diocese 

of San Bernardino, an organization like CHIRLA, together in the 

past four years we have collected $6 million in unpaid wages and 

back wages. It also includes the U.S. Department of Labor and the 

California Department of Labor all working together to make sure 

that at the end of the day people get paid for their work. 

Promoting civic engagement and language access will help immigrants better participate in their social and political environment. 

Immigrants know their social and economic possibilities are multiplied when they learn English. One-third of Los Angeles County 

adults or 2.3 million are limited English proficient. Today most 

English classes are filled to capacity and require additional government attention to meet the extraordinary need. With increased investment in English as a second language, programs all over Los 

Angeles will benefit. 

Over 60 percent of immigrants in Los Angeles have a high school 

or college or advanced degree. These are 60 percent of immigrants 

in Los Angeles. Many of their skills and knowledge are not utilized 

because there are few programs to recognize their credentials and 

help them incorporate into high-skilled employment. In 1999, 

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grant youth program where we go into the high schools and work 

with immigrant youths who are undocumented. We are in eight 

campuses in the city of Los Angeles. 

We also launched the California Network, which is a network of 

29 college campuses in which there are undocumented students. 

I’m sorry, in the County of Los Angeles, we estimate that 10,000 

young people for graduating every year who are undocumented, 

who do not have access to financial aid. Many of these young people are stellar students. Some of them are in this room. They are 

stellar students who cannot go on to school despite their grades 

and despite incredible willingness to do so. 

Right now, in the state of California, we have in-state tuition so 

children who can show they have been in the high school at least 

three years can actually have access to that in-state tuition, but we 

don’t have access to financial aid. I know of parents who are working two and three jobs, one job to pay the rent, one job to put food 

on the table, and the third job to put their kids through schools. 

Opening up access to higher education and financial aid programs will also allow for the best and brightest to become professionals that contribute to Los Angeles society and tax base. Opening the doors of education to immigrants is critical to capitalizing 

on all the talent that immigrants have to offer. 

Immigrants in Los Angeles County are also contributing to the 

vitality of the Los Angeles County democracy. Los Angeles immigrants are active in campaigns to improve housing, educational, 

health care, and labor conditions in Los Angeles. 

Immigrants are central to improving conditions for all who live 

and work in L.A. Examples include the increase of wages and 

working conditions in the hotel and tourist industry in Los Angeles, the adoption of living wage ordinances, the protection of First 

Amendment right to work for day laborers, and the community for 

active citizens in Los Angeles are demonstrating to the rest of the 

country and the world that positive change can be achieved in their 

communities, and I thank the millions of people who are marching 

the streets of Los Angeles for immigrant families. 

Most recently, immigrants have filed a record 1.4 million nationalization applications, a demonstration of their willingness to become engaged in the American process. Most of the applications 

filed were from immigrants living in Los Angeles County. Yet there 

is little investment in the citizenship or the legal visa family. 

Billions have been spent on borders and interior enforcement 

while billions have been diverted from the citizenship and service 

provision. Fees have increased, but the services have not gotten 

better, and we see this by the backlog of citizenship applications 

and the legal visas, that there’s many of them for many reasons 

that can be up to two decades. 

Immigrants thrive in a welcoming environment by creating social 

and cultural networks that encourage them to invest in the creation of safer, cohesive communities. Yet, over two decades of restrictive and hostile immigrant policies are having a detrimental 

impact on immigrants and their ability to advance politically, socially and economically. 

For many immigrants, their lack of access to a path of citizenship is relegating them to low-paying jobs with few prospects to 


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achieve their full potential. As stated earlier, over one million undocumented immigrants live in Los Angeles. According to the Migration Institute, over 537,000 children have at least one undocumented parent in Los Angeles. For these children, their future is 

put in peril as a result of their parents’ own uncertain future and 

threat of detention and deportation because of their immigration 

status. 

We run an immigrant assistance hotline and receive 15,000 calls 

a year. Many of these calls are people who are calling as a raid is 

happening in their home. There have been residential raids 

throughout Los Angeles County. Homeland Security has instituted 

75 fugitive operation teams. These are composed of five or six team 

members, and what they do is they go through a list of individuals 

who had previous deportation orders or many times were deported 

without them knowing. 

There is a list with a person’s picture and, from my perspective, 

these are bounty hunters. They try to seek these individuals. Many 

times they don’t find them. What they do find is other people who 

happen to live in the same address, and those people are picked up. 

We have seen raids in the city of Los Angeles that have devastated 

our community. I’ve seen and been with children who have been 

left behind because their parents have been picked up in these 

raids. For these children their future is in peril. 

The passage of just and humane immigration policies that include legalization for undocumented, decreasing the wait times for 

legal visas and increase in labor protections and economic opportunities will exponentially grow immigrant contributions to Los Angeles and the nation. And I could go on and on to illustrate the obvious: There is a great deal of untapped potential in our midst, and 

it is our loss as a community if we continue to fail in recognizing 

the critical need to address immigration integration issues in our 

county in a genuinely committed and coordinated fashion. We can 

no longer wait for a government to seize this momentum, especially 

when its enforcement-only policy sends the wrong signal to immigrant families and threatens everything that they hold dear about 

this country. 

Immigrant integration is a concrete manifestation of the American dream made real. We carry the responsibility of making sure 

that immigrant workforce participation is recognized and reinforced, and that the future generations of immigrant children join 

the mainstream of civic and economic life. 

As the facts of immigrant contributions continue to emerge, we 

can no longer hide from the consequences of inaction. The absence 

of just and humane immigration reform will continue to haunt our 

efforts at local integration if we also do not work towards addressing the policy gaps that exist to pursue positive integration programs. 

This is the challenge and opportunity before us, and I hope that 

as we have done so in the past, in the many battles we have fought 

with our immigrant families and friends, we will also rise to this 

challenge and make Los Angeles County the best example of how 

immigrant social, political, and economic incorporation is done. 

Thank you. 


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Ms. SOLIS. Our next speaker is Ms. EunSook Lee. She is the executive director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium. This organization was founded in 1994 by local 

community leaders of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York who 

recognize the strength in a common voice. Their main mission is 

to project a national voice on major civil rights and immigrant 

issues and to promote the full participation of Korean-Americans in 

their society through education, organizing, and advocacy. 

Ms. Lee will focus her testimony on the immigrant integration 

needs of the Asian Pacific Islanders in the area of education, health 

care, employment, and political advocacy. Thank you, Ms. Lee, for 

being here. 

EUNSOOK LEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL KOREAN 

AMERICAN SERVICE & EDUCATION CONSORTIUM 

Ms. LEE. Representative Solis and Representative Hastings, 

thank you also for giving me the opportunity to speak today at this 

hearing, and I’ve submitted written testimony, so I will try to keep 

to the five-minute limit. 

Given that there are one million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, who I will refer to as AAPI, are undocumented and 1.5 

million are caught in the backlog, immigration reform is a priority 

we share with others who testified. Again, for this morning, I want 

to focus on integration of immigrants. 

In L.A. alone, there are close to 400,000 AAPI and 96,000 Korean-Americans, of which 75 percent are immigrants. NAKASEC is 

a national consortium of community-based organizations that work 

directly daily with AAPI and Korean-American immigrants, and so 

we know what daily struggles we face, and we know both the successes and challenges that Los Angeles has sought to address the 

impact of migration. The City of Los Angeles and our nation, America, must recognize that we have a social compact with immigrants. 

Immigrants work hard to create the tools and resources that 

strengthen our city and nation. 

In exchange, they should not be driven underground as secondclass citizens, but be able to take full advantage of those tools and 

be able to safeguard the health, education and progress of their 

families and participate fully in civic life, for the very future prosperity and security of America is incumbent of local governments 

and Congress to respond to migration by honoring and strengthening and not neglecting this social compact. 

The newly released report by the National Conference of States 

Legislatures found that in the first quarter of 2008 more than 

1,100 bills of largely anti-immigrant bills have been considered basically on the five issues of employment, identification/driver’s licenses, law enforcement, public benefits and services, and education. What is encouraging is that while there have been publicized activities by vocal minority fanning the flames of anti-immigrant sentiments, few of these local anti-immigrant measures have 

actually passed. Moreover, it is our belief that immigrant integration is the antidote to anti-immigrant measures and sentiments. 

Communities that hate or fear immigrants are those who have 

never had contact with them. 


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Integration is essential to breaking that ignorance and fear of 

the unfamiliar, and it is best done on the local level. I will focus 

on immigration integration of AAPI in the area of education, health 

care, and political. First with education. Throughout Southern California we have worked with thousands of students and their parents who are AAPI to advocate for access to public education at K– 

12 and post-secondary institutions. 

These students have been denied admissions primarily because 

of a misunderstanding of the federal immigration laws or California State Educational Code which explicitly protects immigrant 

students’ rights to admission regardless of immigration status. 

Undocumented immigrant students, particularly from Asia, face 

the added barrier of being denied in-state tuition, again because of 

a misunderstanding of federal immigration laws. Education, as we 

know, is a chief determinant of an individual’s future success and 

quality of life. And for this reason, it is of great concern for us. 

It is also important to understand that we must enable parents 

to become engaged in their children’s activities both in school and 

education. At the heart of the problem is the inability of schools to 

provide multilingual communications to immigrant parents other 

than Spanish speakers. 

We have cases of young Korean-American kindergarten students 

waiting extra hours because their parents only receive notices of 

early school out in English and Spanish. We also have cases of Korean-American parents being forced to ask other bilingual parents 

that they can find at a parent night to interpret for them confidential information about their child. 

As a result of the public schools’ failure to provide language access, limited English-proficient AAPI parents are disempowered 

from monitoring their children’s academic progress or having a 

voice in determining school policies. Too often immigrant children 

or children of immigrant parents must navigate the educational 

system on their own, some unsuccessful. Provisions of language access are part of the solution. 

The other part is increased funding for English as a second language and civics classes for adults. Contrary to the myth that immigrants do not want to speak English, the experience of our L.A. 

center, the Korean Resource Center, which runs an English and 

civics class in partnership with L.A. Community College, there’s a 

long waiting list of immigrant parents willing to enroll in English 

classes after an eight- to 12-hour workday. Immigrant parents do 

not question the importance of learning English, not only for work 

but also to remain a central part of their children’s lives. 

On the issue of health care, nationally one out of two KoreanAmericans lack health insurance. That is the highest of any community. This is because of two primary reasons. One is the high 

costs make coverage unaffordable and language barriers make coverage unusable. 

AAPI, particularly Korean-American households in Southern 

California, have the state’s highest level of linguistic isolation. 

Quantitative and qualitative research shows that language barriers 

are associated with lower health education, poor doctor/patient 

interaction and lower patient satisfaction. 


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These patients are less likely to receive counseling on proper 

diet, smoking cessation, and exercise habits. The immediate danger 

is that language barriers delay care, facilitate misdiagnoses, and 

wrong prescriptions could be dangerous for a patient’s well-being. 

Sometimes it’s fatal. 

We have on record a story of a limited English proficient KoreanAmerican patient who was admitted to Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina suffering from kidney failure and diabetes. 

After a week’s stay she began to feel better and the hospital made 

discharge plans. 

However, while attempting to go to the rest room without assistance, she fell off her bed and broke her right arm and hip causing 

her to prolong her hospital stay. A few days later, she complained 

about pain saying, ‘‘Apah,’’ which means ‘‘pain’’ in Korean. 

The hospital staff did not attempt to find an interpreter to understand her repeated comments of ‘‘apah.’’ Finally, they asked her 

husband, who is limited English proficient, and they understood 

that ‘‘apah’’ meant ‘‘pain.’’ From that period on, the nurses would 

ask, ‘‘Apah?’’ and give her painkillers. They never asked where the 

pain was located or the extremity. 

When the niece came to visit, she was shocked in her aunt’s 

treatment and questioned the hospital staff about patient communication and lack of interpreter services. Even after referring the 

hospital staff to PALS for help, an organization that provides free 

medical interpretation, the hospital continued to ignore interpretation requests. 

It was later discovered the patient had an infection in her arm 

which traveled up to her shoulder. A week later, by the time the 

infection was detected, it already entered her bloodstream and it 

was too late to cure. Complications from kidney failure, diabetes, 

and the new infection, the patient slipped into a coma and passed 

away. The entire time the patient simply said, ‘‘I can’t speak 

English, but I should be thankful that they are treating me.’’ 

Lastly, integration is socioeconomic but also political. A recent 

report by Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees 

found that 93 percent of AAPI children ages 12 to 17 have an immigrant parent. Moreover, 28.5 percent of the sum of all potential 

voters in California in 2012 will be made up of immigrant voters. 

AAPI voters are referred to as the sleeping giant who must be 

stirred in order to advocate for policies that impact their lives. 

While only 52 percent of AAPIs who are U.S. citizens over the age 

of 18 are registered, 85.2 percent of AAPI registered voters did 

vote. 

In other words, while we suffer from lower voter registration 

rates, when registered, AAPI promises healthy rates of consistent 

voter participation, particularly when appropriate and adequate resources and support are provided. In seeking to cultivate a sustained culture in civic engagement, we have a responsibility to facilitate their engagement through comprehensive voter empowerment activities that are bilingual and bicultural. What is particularly exciting is the work that many of us on this panel are a part 

of within our own organizations, but also in coalition regionally and 

nationally. 


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Unfortunately, rather than facilitating the political participation 

of immigrants, some state and federal governments may be making 

it more difficult for immigrants as naturalized citizens to fully participate. On April 28, 2008, the Supreme Court by 6–3 rejected a 

Constitutional challenge to an Indiana law requiring voters to show 

government-issued photo I.D. before voting. This ruling is expected 

to open the doors for other states to move forward with wholesale 

voter disenfranchisement tactics against ethnic and language minority voters. In my submitted testimony I cite more clearly how 

minority young people and seniors will be disenfranchised because 

of this specific law. 

In addition, more than one million legal permanent residents 

seeking to become U.S. citizens are now caught in the naturalization backlogs. The processing time will increase from seven months 

to 18 months. It’s now estimated that half a million may not be 

processed before the November elections. 

These naturalization backlogs are a grave form of backdoor disenfranchisement. While Dr. Emilio Gonzalez, director of USCIS, 

has resigned, it is not clear whether USCIS will begin to take serious action to enable immigrants to become full participants of 

American society. 

In closing, not only is it important for Congress to focus on the 

enactment of a comprehensive immigration reform that is a workable solution to the problems of our nation’s immigration system, 

but it must also work with local cities in focusing on key integration issues such as health care access, education, and civic engagement. 

Taken as a whole, I urge the committee to consider the need for 

holistic approaches that promote the full integration of immigrants. 

Like their fellow Americans, immigrants arrived to contribute to 

the greatness and strength of this nation, and at the same time expect that Los Angeles and America as a receiving city and nation 

will provide them with equitable and fair opportunities to build a 

better life for themselves and their children and their community. 

Thank you again. 

Ms. SOLIS. I will note the time, but the information that this 

panel has provided is very striking and very, very timely. A lot of 

issues that were raised here regarding the federal government’s 

lack of movement in processing applications for legal residents to 

become citizens is a big issue and problem. We realize also the detention of youngsters occurring right now and the separation of 

families is something that, in my opinion personally, is immoral. 

We have, some of us in Congress, begun to discuss that issue. 

I do want to make clear that we do have legislation that I have 

introduced that would look at—it’s called Families First Immigration Act, H.R. 3890. Whether or not it gets the light of day in committee is one thing, but the purpose is to try to enlighten our communities that there are individuals in Congress that realize that 

ICE and those involved in detention are actually violating the civil 

rights of many of our young people as well as parents that are 

being detained. 

We know there have to be protocol set up. We have sent letters 

also to ICE to question them as to what authority they have in 

terms of rounding people up and bringing them in with the fact 


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32 

that they are not providing adequate legal assistance or the opportunity to obtain legal assistance that is, seeking an attorney or 

counsel for many of those that are being detained. 

We know that there is a series of major violations going on. This 

administration has been very reluctant in even corresponding back 

to members of Congress. That’s how blatantly their disregard for 

our role as members of Congress. 

We are going to continue to fight on that forefront and to see 

that we find protection for those that are being detained, whether 

it’s in Texas, because we know of the horrendous separation of infants from mothers and what that is called, the posttraumatic 

stress that our communities are facing, not just the Latino, but 

also other immigrants that are being detained. 

My understanding is that facility in Texas, as we are speaking, 

has many individuals from the Asian Pacific Islander countries as 

well as other Third World countries and that are not also having 

their personal needs addressed as well. We know that’s a problem. 

There was a horrible incident in Arkansas where a woman was 

detained for three days. They did not know she was being held. 

The enforcement authorities found her dead after three days. Nobody listened to her pleas and cries for assistance and they kind 

of forgot about her. That, to me, is something that I know our 

members of the Hispanic caucus and one of my good friends from 

the CBC, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson from Texas, has 

encouraged us to work on getting some answers from this administration on the treatment of immigrants and those individuals that 

are innocently being rounded up and incarcerated. We know that’s 

an important issue. 

It isn’t just happening here in the United States. I think that’s 

what we need to try to underscore here. Our role with the OSCE 

and Helsinki Commission. We are finding very treacherous incidents that are occurring every single day in European countries. 

The most vulnerable population happens to be children and 

women is why we are having this particular hearing here today because we want to share those similarities, those things that are not 

just happening here but reflective of what’s happening in other 

countries that are trying to achieve democracy. 

We know our countries stands on very strong principles of democracy and social justice and civil rights, but we are failing, I 

think, in our constitutional duties to uphold those rights of everyone regardless of their legal status in this country. 

I am very, very sympathetic to many of the statements that you 

all have made, but I also want to hear from you what the federal 

government—in particular, we haven’t talked about the media and 

the portrayal of immigrants in the plight of this country, and if 

each of you could maybe tell me what your observations have been, 

that might be some of help to us as well. 

We obviously have a bad public relations image with respect to 

migration and what values immigrants bring or don’t bring to this 

country. If you could do that. We will start out with Kerry Doi and 

go through really quick. If you could summarize in a minute or so. 

Mr. DOI. It’s really a complex issue that I’ve been trying to battle 

in the last 40 years, the portrayal of Asians in the media. Yesterday over the radio some talk show host was using ching-chong 


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33 

chinaman kinds of jokes, and it was absolutely ridiculous. Aren’t 

we in the 21st century? But it’s still going on. And it does hurt. 

I mean, it continues the image of Asians being sneaky and all 

those kinds of things, which is why back in the ’60s we decided to 

drop the term Oriental and recreate the term of Asian to self-identify and recreate a new image. 

Ms. SALAS. I think the first thing that needs to happen is we 

need to understand that for the past, I would say, almost 15 years 

we have created ‘‘immigrant’’ synonymous to ‘‘criminal,’’ and what 

has happened is that that is the excuse that the anti-immigrant, 

the native movement in this country, many of them who then are 

anchors on major newscasts. Certainly, Lou Dobbs, the O’Reilly 

Factor, and we can go on. They are not the only ones. In our local 

press, the newspaper articles that are written or the local television newscasts and how they portray immigrants. But the foundation of this possibility of treating and speaking of immigrants 

with such hate and venom is this idea that immigrants are equal 

to criminals. 

We have to decriminalize the act of working, the act of trying to 

survive and provide for their families. I think through Congress 

and in all these other countries around the world where we are 

putting billions and billions of dollars on the enforcement and then 

castigating and then trying to round up immigrants as criminals. 

They are not. They are workers. 

I think that needs to happen because then what ends up happening when you are talking to a Lou Dobbs or O’Reilly, they say, 

‘‘Well, they have committed a crime and therefore we have to pursue them and treat them this way and we have to talk about them 

as one,’’ and we have to reject that idea, reject it once, reject it 

twice, as many times as we can. 

These are hard-working people who we should be proud of and 

who we should support and certainly not round up. 

Ms. LEE. I wanted to agree with both speakers and say what we 

need to do is have Americans understand that the immigration 

problem is something that doesn’t get fixed and benefit just immigrants but all Americans. 

There are two key misperceptions. One is that there is a diminishing opportunity that immigrants are taking away and the feeling that there’s a loss of American culture with the migration of 

immigrants. And that’s why—for example, the assumption that immigrants don’t want to speak English and so on and so forth. So 

I really believe that there are two key parts of it that we have to 

address. 

One is integration and identification. If nonimmigrants can better identify immigrants as part of their own, their political perception will change. Political views are the same in themselves, but 

personal views and the attachment to individuals is what changes 

our communities. 

I wanted to mention a case of Andrew Young, a Korean boy born 

in U.S. and raised in Ohio. His parents were deported when he was 

14. The community around him was nonimmigrant, predominantly 

white, and predominantly Republicans and predominantly Baptists. 

They knew nothing of immigration, but they knew him and his 

family. 


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34 

Because of his case, they take political views in terms of immigration. If this is what the immigration laws are going to do to people like him, those political views need to be changed. 

What the media needs do is show how immigrants are more diverse but personalize the issue in a human way and not, as Angelica and others mentioned, criminalizing the person as someone as 

the outsider and someone that doesn’t want to be integrated to the 

American culture. 

Ms. SOLIS. Alcee, I’ll turn it over to you. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you very much. Our witnesses have answered all of the questions. I guess if we have any follow-up at all, 

it should attend what I always say is the subject of solutions. As 

all of you were speaking, I was thinking of how interactive our 

overall society is and can be, and to write a, so-called comprehensive immigration reform measure, one good way to do that in today’s society might be to start with just a clean slate and have everybody phone in, e-mail in, call in and say what ought to be on 

it and have a big slate. I don’t think we are going to get it in this 

political system because we play too much gotcha, and somewhere 

along the lines I don’t think people are fair-minded listeners. 

I won’t ask you any questions. I want to compliment and thank 

Hilda and the administration here at Cal State for accommodating 

us. Also Hilda’s staff that have done a tremendous job in arranging 

this in a short period of time, as well as those that work with us 

on the Helsinki Commission. Additionally, we are particularly 

grateful of the law enforcement in our community here has been 

helpful and very accommodating to all of us as well. 

You, as an audience, have been extremely patient, and I really, 

really appreciate it. I always feel that it would be better to not 

have the high table and a low table, but to have everybody—there 

are so many ideas in this audience, there’s so much expertise right 

here. Earlier we were meeting. I offered a measure dealing with 

the Iraqi refugees, and a young lady seated here now actually lived 

in Iraq during the era of Saddam Hussein, and it would be interesting to have her perspective as well as those of you who are here 

from labor unions and knowing the extraordinary experiences that 

you have in that regard. 

I wanted to end two ways, Madam Congresswoman, really three. 

I want to point to something Ms. Lee pointed out about the law 

that the Supreme Court upheld, that is, an Indiana law regarding 

persons requiring identification. 

My mother died three and a half years ago, and because of her 

age and circumstances, she did not have photo identification and 

she never drove a car to any relative degree. When she did try to 

drive a car, she had a red ’55 standard car, and we had a dog 

named True Boy, and the next day they tried to get True Boy to 

get into the car and he ran under the house. He wouldn’t ride with 

my mama. She never had a car, she didn’t have that. In Indiana 

last Tuesday in the election five nuns showed up to vote from a 

convent there in Indiana, and all of them were in their 90s. None 

of them had identification. 

I mean, come on, what are we saying here? But for this nation 

to reconcile its problems, and I do want to speak to the momentary 

politics of Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton. They 


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35 

don’t know it yet and we don’t feel it yet, but what they are doing 

by being a woman, an African-American man, and a white man, 

and there was a Latino in this race and there were other nationalities as well, but what they are doing is taking us to a better level. 

When all is said and done, the residual from it will be that some 

level of tolerance will be manifested in a different way by virtue 

of the mere fact that they are in the position, particularly Obama 

and Clinton, to be president of the United States. I think that’s a 

very healthy thing for all of us. 

Ms. Salas, I agree with you so much about decriminalizing the 

criminal notion. 9/11 didn’t help very much because it added to the 

word criminal, terrorist, and then everything became suspect, and 

it made it manifest even more for those that divide us as we go forward. 

But I want to end with a story that I know from the experience 

of having lived on this earth for 71 years. In Arkansas, outside of 

a town named Hughes, Arkansas, a black singer was on his way 

to Texas with his band. He was a blues singer. His name was Percy 

Mayfield. He had a nephew who went on to some considerable 

fame, Curtis Mayfield. Percy Mayfield, on a foggy night when his 

band had finished and they were moving on, he and his band was 

struck by a white family from New York from the rear. 

One of his band members died, and he was disfigured such that 

he only had a limited career after that, but he was a songwriter 

until he died. In those days, there were only three black doctors in 

Arkansas, and one came, and a white woman assisted him to be 

treated in the alcove of the emergency room of the hospital in 

Hughes, Arkansas. He couldn’t convalesce in the place, so they took 

him to the home of a negro woman that was a widow. And he 

heard her pray and he wrote a song that I, as a little boy, also 

thought was just a blues song and danced close to my girlfriend. 

But the song sums up what we all could be about and what Hilda 

and I are about and Diane and those of us who are sensitive to 

these issues are about. It says, Father Richard, ‘‘Heaven is searching for all mankind’’—and I would make his song be gender perfect 

today and say, ‘‘humankind understanding and peace of mind. If 

it’s not asking too much, Lord, please send me someone to love.’’ 

In the refrain of the song he says, ‘‘A less man’’—and I would 

make it gender perfect and say, ‘‘a less man or woman,’’ he does 

not say, ‘‘unless Latino or Hispanic man,’’ he doesn’t say, ‘‘African 

or Asian man.’’ He says ‘‘unless man,’’ not Catholic man or Protestant man or Jewish man, ‘‘unless man puts an end to this damn 

noble sin, hate will put the world in a flame. What a shame.’’ 

Thank you all so very much for being here. 

Ms. SOLIS. It’s hard to follow Alcee sometimes because he’s so eloquent and has moving stories that I enjoy hearing all the time. 

I want to reiterate that the testimony that all of our witnesses 

have given will be posted, so everyone can see the full length of 

their testimony. 

I know five minutes doesn’t give us enough time to hear everything that should be said, and the questioning could go on for one 

whole day on one subject matter, whether it’s remittances, education, whether it’s allowing access for our young people who are 


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undocumented to receive higher education and receive the full benefits of our society. Those are all issues we care about. 

In the framework of this body, the OSCE, and my role as special 

representative of migration, I’m going to take back everything that 

we have learned here today and we will put it in a report and we 

will post it. 

I would ask you to also share with other individuals who represent the various communities here. We have representatives from 

Honduras, from Guatemala, from Mexico, from our Asian Pacific 

countries, to also ask them what are they doing about this issue 

in reference to their own home countries and do they accept some 

of the principles that we talked about here today. Because this is 

about one family. It’s not just one L.A. It’s not just one L.A. County. It’s not just one California. It’s about the entire globe in the 

planet, and I think all of us can really learn from that. 

So I ask you to think about that and to take that message back 

to your countries and to your representatives who also have a great 

deal to say in this body of politics that we have. I thank the witnesses for coming, and I really want to thank the audience. We 

have a number of people in the audience who I know may not have 

had the full extent of understanding everything that was said. 

Part of it was because we didn’t have interpreters, primarily in 

Asian, but also in Spanish. So I think our challenge will be to try 

to translate this information also and post it perhaps on my Web 

site in Spanish so people can read what took place here today because a lot of information here was very powerful, and the fact that 

we had Congresswoman Watson, Congressman Alcee Hastings, and 

this is probably one of the most important hearings that you will 

hear about that took place outside of Washington, D.C., where you 

had some of your premier leadership on this issue come forward 

and testify to members of the Congress. 

With all that is going on surrounding the migration and immigration debate, I, like Alcee, am waiting after November to see, 

when we come back to the House in January, and we will begin 

to pull off the shelf the bills and bills that need to be implemented, 

and that is to address immigration reform and also to work better 

with our neighboring countries to see that we have better relationships with them as well. 

We have done a great disservice, I think, with our friends south 

of the border. We have not outreached to them adequately. Even 

to our friends on the other parts of the continent to really allow 

them to understand us better, to really see the heart of the American people. 

You may not always see that reflected in our leaders or so-called 

leadership in Washington, D.C., as it currently stands. That will 

change. I think many people across the country and across the 

world that I have run into, just based on this particular group, this 

one organization, are very, very delighted to see the change in our 

House administration. 

That’s what it is. It’s about healing. There are some very bad and 

mixed feelings about how people perceive our country. If we can’t 

treat our own citizens of our country well, we are not going to be 

respected by anyone outside of our own borders. We have a lot of 

work to do and a lot of what you say and said here today about 


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37 

how we need to make improvements we take very strongly to 

heart. 

I want to thank all of you for being here. The next part of our 

hearing or our tour will be to go to Olvera Street to see La Placita 

there and to meet with some people and also tour the Chinatown 

Action Service Center to hear about how immigrants are reintegrated into society and the positive things that go on as well 

as the challenges. 

The federal government has a role to play here, and we obviously 

know we have failed in the last seven years. It’s time for a change 

and we see it coming, and we want you also to understand that we 

are going to be calling on you. This is not a job of just two people. 

It is all of us working together. 

So on behalf of the people that I represent in the 32nd District 

and also part of my role as representative on migration for the 

OSCE and also as a concerned daughter of immigrants, I understand the role that we play and take very deeply all the comments 

that have been made today. I want to thank you. Before we depart, 

Cal State L.A., on behalf of President Ross, he wanted me to 

present this to Alcee Hastings, who I understand is a close colleague of the president. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you. 

Ms. SOLIS. I would say to the audience here that if you have any 

comments that you would like to make, you have our Web site, and 

you can also send us information and we would like to hear from 

you. 


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