Action Alert on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Misguided House-Passed Legislation Would Harm Immigrants and Asylum Seekers!
Urge your Senators to Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform Instead!
January 2006

Background

In recent years, HIAS has been an active voice in support of efforts to resolve the complex problems associated with undocumented migration, a process known as Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). These problems include: the existence of 11 million individuals living in the United States without legal status; the dangerous reality of unauthorized border crossings that has resulted in thousands of deaths and increasingly violent conditions in the border regions; and the extensive backlogs in family immigration visas that cause prolonged and inhumane separation of families. Further, the existence of such a large shadow society severely hinders the United States’ pressing security needs, which require the government to target enforcement resources on individuals who pose grave dangers to the country.

Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate have put forth legislation aimed at achieving Comprehensive Immigration Reform. HIAS supports the bi-partisan, bi-cameral piece of legislation known as the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S. 1033/ H.R. 2330), sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representatives Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL). This legislation addresses all of the central aspects of CIR and has received widespread support from immigration advocates, faith-based groups, and business leaders.

However, instead of pursuing a comprehensive approach, the House chose to act in a piecemeal fashion, recently passing harmful anti-immigrant legislation aimed solely at border security and interior immigration enforcement. This legislation—the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R.4437)—was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on December 6, 2005, and passed the full House by a vote of 239-182 less than two weeks later.

This misguided and harmful legislation would dramatically affect the lives of legal immigrants, citizens, and business owners, while ignoring the serious problems associated with undocumented migration. For example, if enacted, this legislation would:

• Make any relative, employer, coworker, co-congregant, or friend of an undocumented immigrant who provides assistance to that immigrant into an “alien smuggler” and a criminal.
• Make 11 million undocumented immigrants—and legal immigrants who have temporary status problems—into criminals who local police can arrest. While illegal immigrants are currently subject to deportation, this bill would make unlawful status a federal crime and an “aggravated felony,” meaning the individual would be barred from reentry to the U.S. permanently.
• Increase the detention of asylum seekers and deprive many of them of federal court review.
• Make it harder for legal permanent residents to become citizens by keeping information regarding their application secret and preventing judicial review of their cases.
• Turn state and local police into immigration agents and thus alienate immigrant communities—communities that have an important role to play in identifying threats to public safety.

Immigration advocates remain hopeful that the Senate will take a more comprehensive approach to reform. While HIAS supports the framework of the Secure America Act, we also welcomed recent CIR legislation introduced by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and appreciate the contributions of Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), as well as the Bush Administration, in moving the debate forward. In addition, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has signaled his interest in working toward a solution by preparing a compromise bill that combines elements from the McCain-Kennedy, Hagel, and Cornyn-Kyl bills. Although advocates find some of the provisions of the current draft inconsistent with realistic CIR, Senator Specter has stated that his proposal represents a starting point for the Senate's debate, and may alter the provisions prior to consideration in the Judiciary Committee.

Here's How You Can Help:

The Senate is likely to begin consideration of immigration legislation in early February. It is essential that the Senate not follow the lead of the House, but instead take a sensible, realistic look at our current immigration system and consider reforms to best safeguard security, fulfill labor needs, and remain true to this country's core humanitarian values.

It is important that your Senators hear directly from you, as a constituent. Immigration restrictionists are already mobilizing on this issue and are certain to be lobbying their Senators to pass anti-immigration legislation. Please support immigrants and asylum seekers by voicing your support for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Below is a sample letter for your use or adaptation. Please mail, fax, or email your appeal, and follow up with a phone call to the office. To find contact information for your Senators, visit: www.senate.gov.

_______________________

[Date]

Dear Senator [Name]:

In December, the House of Representatives passed harsh, enforcement-only immigration legislation, with little opportunity for debate or deliberation. The bill includes a number of harmful provisions that will drive undocumented immigrants further into the shadows and deny due process to asylum seekers and other immigrants.

As the Senate begins to consider immigration legislation of its own, I urge you to stand strongly in support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, rather than following the piecemeal approach taken in the House. In particular, any bill that goes forward should include:

• Border protection policies that are consistent with American humanitarian values and effective against illegal migration, thereby allowing the authorities to carry out the critical task of identifying and preventing entry of terrorists and dangerous criminals.
• An opportunity for hard-working immigrants who are already contributing to this country to come out of the shadows, regularize their status upon satisfaction of reasonable criteria and, over time, pursue an option to become lawful permanent residents and eventually United States citizens;
• Reforms in our family-based immigration system to significantly reduce waiting times for separated families who currently must wait many years to be reunited with loved ones; and
• The creation of legal avenues for workers and their families who wish to migrate to the U.S. to enter our country and work in a safe, legal, and orderly manner with their rights fully protected.

Reforming our broken immigration system will make our country more secure and address critical migration needs. Please support proposals that provide for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and oppose those that simply offer the false promise of an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform.

Sincerely,

[Name & Address]