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Immigration bills
are moving in Congress.
Speak up now to make
sure immigration reform is fair and just!
To ensure that
the
proposed Immigration Reform Bill supports
families and workers and provides a pathway to
citizenship, please
email your Senators today asking them to make the
following improvements:
Six Ways to
Improve the Immigration Reform Bill
1. Keep Families
Together
Family unification, the cornerstone of U.S. immigration
policy since 1965, is more difficult since family members
will be competing with highly-skilled workers for visas and
voids all family visa applications since May 2005. We need
to keep families together by increasing the number of slots
for family members, eliminate the May 2005 cut-off, and
automatically allow lawful permanent residents to bring
their immediate family to the U.S.
2. Stop Militarizing
the U.S.-Mexico Border
The legalization program and the temporary worker programs
would not start until the government has hired 18,000
additional Border Patrol agents and built 370 miles of
fencing along the border with Mexico. U.S. taxpayers have
already spent more than $30 billion to fund more fences,
walls, and border agents in the past 12 years and instead of
stemming the flow of immigrants, we’ve created a
humanitarian crisis at the border,” says Nieves. “More
deaths have occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border in the past
decade than in the history of the Berlin Wall. It is very
troubling that even the flawed positive provisions will not
begin until we spend billions more on unsound, inhumane
border policies.”
3. Remove the
Hurdles to Legal Residency & Citizenship
The proposed legislation does offer a limited path to
citizenship, but unreasonable provisions, including lengthy
waiting periods, fines, a new “merit”-based system, and
other punitive hurdles mean that undocumented workers would
need to wait from eight to thirteen years to become citizens
and pay the equivalent of up to six months wages.
4. End Raids and
Mandatory Detentions
Raids have spread fear through communities throughout the
U.S., increasing racial profiling and separating family
members. Instead of mandatory detentions often hundreds of
miles from the immigrants’ families we need more workable
alternatives. Immigrants should have the right to an
individualized hearing in front of an independent judge to
determine whether they can be released to the community.
5. Protect All
Workers
The bill establishes a guest worker visa program, which
permits individuals to work in the U.S. for three two-year
terms, but requires that they leave for at least one year
between each term. These workers would be left without a
direct path to permanent residency and vulnerable to
unethical employers, as shown by the experience of the
Bracero program between the U.S. and Mexican government
between 1942 and 1964. Even now, former bracero workers
fight for unpaid wages and recount severe mistreatment and
exploitation while they were temporary workers. Support
amendments to better protect the rights of all workers in
this country including immigrant workers.
6. Talk to
Immigrants
It seems obvious, but Congress should meet with immigrants
who live in their states and involve them in helping craft a
more effective, just, and humane bill.
Email your Senators today to ask them to make the changes.
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