WHEN:      Saturday, May 6, 2006; 12:06 p.m. EST

 WHERE:   American Urban Radio Network Affiliate Stations

 Congressman Jackson is expected to deliver the following remarks:

"This is Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. of the Second Congressional District of Illinois.

"Marchers are marching, protesters are protesting, broadcasters are reporting, cable and radio talk shows and Congress are all talking about immigration.  Some of them are making sense while others are spreading lies and playing to stereotypes.

"What triggered these coast-to-coast immigration protests that brought over a million people out in the open and into the streets?  The catalyst seems to have been a Republican bill passed in Congress last December sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, a conservative Republican from Wisconsin.

"It's draconian ‘enforcement-only’ provisions turned undocumented workers into illegal felons and made those who gave them humanitarian assistance criminals.  The bill also proposed building a 700-mile fence along the southwest border of the United States and kicking out of the country all those who are here illegally.  But clearly, as a practical matter, we can't arrest and jail - or put out of the country - 11-to-12 million people.  The major focus of the protesters was on defeating this bill.

"Some anti-immigrant forces tried to racialize the protesters by calling them 'Mexicans carrying Mexican flags.'  Other opponents were downright nasty.  One radio host in Arizona even threatened to ‘randomly pick one night - every week - where we will kill whoever crosses the border.’

"What's needed is a comprehensive immigration reform bill.  Meaningful immigration reform must protect our security, allow our economy to grow, protect the wages of U.S. workers, honor our value of rewarding hard work, and respect the tradition of the United States as a dynamic country of immigrants.

"Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy have comprehensive reform legislation that includes measurers to increase border security, crack down on businesses that hire undocumented workers, and provide a path for immigrants to move out of the shadows and earn citizenship.

“The Senate bill also requires that undocumented workers seeking earned citizenship would have to apply for a six-year temporary status, have a job, pay taxes, obey the law, learn English and pay a $2,000 penalty for having come here illegally.

"African Americans came here as slaves, not as immigrants, so why should we identify with the immigrant cause?  We should identify out of principle, and the principle should be:  human rights for all human beings.  No other human being is an ‘illegal alien.’  No human being should have his or her human rights violated.  No human being should be treated any less than as a full human being and in a humane way.