BACKGROUND: The U. S. Senate has started debate today on a bipartisan immigration reform bill compromise negotiated between the White House and Senate members last week. While the NALEO Educational Fund does not support the compromise, we are urging the U.S. Senate through deliberation and negotiations to make major improvements to this bill. For a copy of the NALEO Educational Fund’s initial statement on the compromise, click here.
The compromise legislation does include an “earned” legalization program with a path to U.S. citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements. In addition, it also incorporates the provisions of the “DREAM Act,” which provides a path to U.S. citizenship and enhanced access to higher education for certain immigrant high school students. The legislation also establishes a new temporary worker program which provides future workers with legal status and labor protections. However, the bill contains many serious flaws, including the following:
- Reduction in Family Immigration: It replaces much of our current immigration system, where most immigrants can obtain legal permanent residency on the basis of ties to family or employers, with a point system which provides visas on the basis of education, work skills, family, English language ability, and other factors. This approach undermines family reunification, which is a fundamental cornerstone of our nation’s legal immigration system, and it would prohibit many U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents from reuniting with their family members.
- No path to legal permanent residency for temporary workers: The bill’s temporary worker program does not provide participants with a path to legal permanent residency. We believe this new system will create conditions that will lead to a rapidly increasing pool of undocumented immigrants in the future and creates a pool of second class non-citizens, defeating the goals of comprehensive immigration reform.
- Unfair and burdensome legalization requirements: The legislation requires immigrants seeking earned legalization to return to their home countries and apply for legal permanent residency through the U.S. consular offices in those nations. In addition, the fees and penalties for the different steps in the legalization process could add up to several thousands of dollars for immigrant families. We believe that these requirements are unfair and could prevent many otherwise eligible newcomers from pursuing legalization.
ACTION NEEDED
As the Senate begins debate about the final bill today, it is important that your representatives hear your concerns about the compromise bill, and the need to make positive changes during the Senate floor deliberations. The NALEO Educational Fund urges you to participate in a National Call-In Days effort by contacting your U.S. Senators on a toll-free hotline at 1-800-417-7666, and letting them know that you support comprehensive immigration reform that provides fair and humane treatment of our newcomers. The toll-free hotline number will be available from Monday, May 21st through the end of Senate debate on the bill. Your calls are particularly important because proponents of unfair and restrictive immigration legislation are flooding the phone lines of Senate offices in a vocal campaign against comprehensive immigration reform. To assist you in your calls, we have provided brief talking points:
TALKING POINTS
- I urge you to pass real comprehensive immigration reform that provides legal permanent residents with a path to U.S. citizenship through an "earned" legalization program that has fair and reasonable requirements.
- Family reunification is a fundamental cornerstone of our nation's legal immigration system. By reuniting families, the U.S. immigration system reinforces our nation's best family values, while simultaneously serving the country's social and economic well being.
- Do not support proposals that would create obstacles for future legal immigrants who want to bring their immediate family members to the United States.
- Any temporary worker program must provide workers with full labor and civil rights protections, and the opportunity to pursue legal permanent residency in the United States.
- Our immigration system is broken, and if we do not enact fair and comprehensive immigration legislation in this Congressional session, it is unlikely that immigration reform will be addressed until several years from now.
For more detailed information about the compromise legislation, click here.
RESOURCES AND FURTHER INFORMATION
The NALEO Educational Fund has adopted principles on comprehensive immigration reform [click here] that provide a road map to the work that needs to be done on this important national issue, including the need for a path to U.S. citizenship for those immigrants who have played by the rules and are contributing to our society. Our principles also envision a system which promotes family reunification and reduces immigration backlogs; provides a meaningful opportunity for immigrant students to pursue a college education; protects our national security with effective and fair enforcement measures; and promotes the civic integration of newcomers. We urge members of the U.S. Senate to work toward those principles for true comprehensive immigration reform.
We hope this information is useful to you, your staff and your constituents. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact William A. Ramos at the NALEO Educational Fund’s Washington D.C. Office at (202) 546-2536 or e-mail at wramos@naleo.org.
