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The following e-mail was sent by the Peter Schey, the president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, citing many problems with the Senate compromise: Immigration Reform: Compromising the Fundamental Rightsand Protections of Immigrant Workers and Families Based upon a review and analysis of the stalemated Senate “compromise” on immigration reform (copy attached in pdf format ), we urge concerned groups, members of the public, and all those supporting the call for rational and humane immigration at public demonstrations throughout the country, to become familiar with the Senate compromise and advocate strongly against its many oppressive and harsh measures, if not oppose the proposal in its entirety unless it is significantly amended. The Senate compromise is, at its heart, an accommodation reached between leading members of the Republican party pushing for an “enforcement-only” approach, and those representing a more moderate block of the party, including President Bush, willing to accept some sort of legalization program. The former believes it increases the party’s chances of success in the critically important November elections by firing up its social conservative base by ramping up the rhetoric about an immigration crisis, the threat of immigrant invasion, and national security risks supposedly posed by hardworking undocumented immigrant families. It predictably proposes a sledge-hammer approach to wiping out the problem. This appeals to those loyal middle class voters who fear multi-culturalism, non-white immigrants, and anything else that may challenge the homogeneity of the country.
The latter group believes the party’s future lies more with the growing Latino and ethnic communities around the country, and does not wish to repeat the mistake Gov Pete Wilson made when he endorsed the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 and made it his rally cry for re-election, eventually driving Latino and other ethnic voters away from the Republican party by the droves. This view, which supports a “guest worker” program or some form of amnesty, without ever calling it that, also has the support of corporate America, which always welcomes cheap foreign labor, whether to work on the farms or at Microsoft.
What promoters of the Senate compromise do not mention is that their approach includes numerous draconian measures that will strip migrants of judicial protection against arbitrary and unlawful actions taken by officials enforcing federal immigration laws, block traditional avenues to legalization of status thereby rapidly increasing the number of future undocumented migrants, make it more difficult for asylum seekers to obtain protection from persecution, and vastly increase the number of immigrants, including possibly thousands with U.S. citizen children, being detained and deported.
There are several reasons to believe that the Senate’s reform compromise may worsen rather than improve the current policy catastrophe. These are explained in detail in the attached analysis.
If these reasons are valid, the immigrant community and the country as a whole may be better off shelving immigration reform until the subject can be addressed after the November elections in a less rhetorical and charged atmosphere. If the debate continues and the Senate compromise actually moves towards a Senate vote, it is all the more important that the concerns raised in the attached analysis be addressed by advocates dealing with members of Congress, the media, and the public.
During the next two weeks we urge community-based organizations, religious groups, unions, community leaders and others to continue and expand the show of strength exhibited in recent mass demonstrations in cities throughout the country, and to continue communications by way of letters, visits, and phone calls to their Senators or their aides. We also urge local groups to hold public forums on what real immigration reform might look like.
We urge all concerned individuals and organizations to express opposition to the negative aspects that already appear to be part of the Senate “compromise,” including the following:
• Oppose any compromise that cuts back on the already limited human and civil rights that immigrants possess in this country;
• Oppose any compromise that cuts-back on the critical role the federal courts have played for over 100 years protecting the fundamental human and civil rights of immigrants from unlawful and unconstitutional policies adopted by Government agencies;
• Oppose any compromise that will result in the mass and indefinite detention of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have committed no serious crimes;
• Oppose any compromise that cuts off traditional avenues for immigrants to legalize their status through family relationships, asylum, or approved job offers for positions U.S. workers are unavailable to fill;
• Oppose any compromise that includes a “guest worker” program without a mechanism for these workers to eventually apply for permanent resident status and full labor rights to prevent under-cutting U.S. workers;
• Oppose any compromise that increases the difficulties legitimate asylum seekers face in winning protection from return to countries where they face persecution;
• Oppose any compromise that further increases the criminalization and militarization of the US-Mexico border, policies that have caused the deaths of thousands of immigrants crossing the border, substantially increased the dangers faced by border patrol officers, encouraged armed vigilantism, destroyed the infra-structure of border communities on both sides of the border, and done little to stop the flow of migrants.
• Oppose any compromise that criminalizes immigrants based upon their undocumented status.
We encourage concerned individuals and organizations to:
• Support serious study by the Congress of immigration reform as took place prior to the enactment of the last major reform law in 1986 (the Immigration Reform and Control Act), when a Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy was constituted to come up with real solutions, not election year “bumper-sticker” solutions;
• Support a realistic long-term legalization program for undocumented immigrants, including a reasonable statute of limitations on illegal entry for productive otherwise law-abiding immigrants;
• Support dramatic and immediate reductions in the millions of backlogged visa petitions that keep immigrants in undocumented status for upwards of ten years;
• Support labor rights for all immigrant workers in order to reduce the preference employers have for undocumented workers precisely because they have fewer protections under U.S. labor laws than U.S. workers;
• Support greater protections for legitimate asylum seekers to avoid their being returned to countries where they face imprisonment, torture, and death;
• Support humane border enforcement using available technologies and enhanced border surveillance techniques without further criminalizing and militarizing the U.S.-Mexico border;
• Support prompt adjustment of status for the hundreds of thousands of Central American refugees--many of whom came here as a result of U.S. policies in Central America--who are languishing in a legal twilight zone after long-ago applying for ABC, TPS, or NICARA relief;
• Support legislation to curb and more consistently punish the activities of those who engage in violence against immigrants, including border vigilantes, traffickers, and perpetrators of domestic violence;
• Support legislation to rationally adjust per country visa quotas to take into account visa demand;
• Support legislation to repeal the three and ten-year bars that make immigrants who have been in the U.S. for six months in undocumented status ineligible for visas without returning to their home countries for three years, and those who have been here for one year or more in undocumented status ineligible to receive visas without returning to their home countries for ten years.
Please feel free to circulate the attached analysis on the harmful aspects of the Senate compromise to others, and to email me any comments or suggestions. Again, my apologies for cross-postings. Thanks.
Peter A. Schey
President
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
256 S. Occidental Blvd.
Los Angeles, Ca. 90057
Telephone: (213) 388-8693 ext. 104
Facsimile: (213) 386-9484
Electronic mail: <
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