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GUESTS: David Bacon, US-based labor photojournalist and author, Juan Manual Sandoval, a leading social activist and academic in Mexico City

After more than a year of debate and discussion, Congress is offering the bi-partisan STRIVE act as their best compromise on immigration reform. The “Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy” Act of 2007 aims to remedy undocumented immigration by using a two-pronged approach: establishing new programs for undocumented immigrants currently living in the US to achieve legal citizenship, and imposing harsher penalties and stricter enforcement on incoming immigrants. Though the bill is garnering much praise as a “balanced compromise,” critics believe the proposal’s programs on legalization has such a difficult path towards citizenship that it amounts to defacto deportation. Others claim that the act takes the wrong approach to immigration by criminalizing undocumented immigration rather than looking at the root economic causes. On May 1, immigrant workers and supporters around the country will take part in MayDay actions to oppose many aspects of immigration policy that are embodied in the STRIVE Act. I spoke recently with David Bacon, a US-based labor photojournalist and author, Juan Manual Sandoval, a leading social activist and academic in Mexico City. The two of them are on a joint tour to call attention to the links between trade and immigration, a missing link in the mainstream debate on immigration.

For information about LA’s May Day events, visit www.mayday2007.org.