Panama migration bill labeled dangerous racist, xenophobic

Prominent analysts and jurists labeled as the preliminary draft of immigration reform presented by the PRD deputy and first vice president of the National Assembly, Zulay Rodríguez as dangerous, racist, and xenophobic.  

“It is a proposal aimed at Venezuelans … there is no denying that migration rules should be reviewed, but this proposal is biased,” Rodrigo Noriega, lawyer and the editorial board of La Prensa, said in the Open Debate program.

He said that instead of celebrating the entry of  Mariano Rivera into the Hall of Fame, a “foreigner” in the United States, “instead we are discussing a topic that is a smokescreen.” 

The proposal, he said, is “arbitrary” and seeks to create the Migration Action Field Unit (UMAC), which is nothing more than a police “with superpowers.” “We are talking about a dictatorial regime within a democracy”

He said that Rodriguez’s initiative sends a “racist and xenophobic message.” 

Engineer Carlos Salazar considered that Rodriguez’s initiative is “dangerous”. He mentioned, for example, the creation of the “special police”, which would be in charge of investigating foreigners. It was a smokescreen before the case of deputy payroll and donations. 

Sociologist  Danilo Toro said the draft has an “argument that is obviously xenophobic, is anti-immigrant and does not disguise the rejection of foreigners and that is dangerous”.

The lawyer and ex-magistrate José Abel said that Rodriguez’s proposal creates a unit that would open proceedings to foreigners who insult the nation which he considered “dangerous.”.

Meanwhile, the lawyer Carlos González Ramírez said that the proposal of the deputy is to “persecute foreigners” who took refuge in a speedy documentation program. 

Rodríguez defended her bill saying that in Panama there are foreigners who accepted extensions of their stay, but to date “have not fixed their papers,” and her proposal, , is aimed at those who have not been regularized. 

“If the Panamanians do not pay taxes, they go to jail, if the employer does not pay the worker employers fee, a process is opened, if the foreigner does not pay, nothing happens,” she said.

“We do not know how many foreigners entered illegally, with HIV, or with diseases,” she added.

The  issue “unleashes passions” because Panamanians feel the immigrants  are against their “health, work and safety,” she said