Principles for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
 

 

 

Comprehensive Immigration Reform

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“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the stranger.

The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you;

you shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt:

I am the Lord your God.” --Leviticus 19:33-34

 

As people of faith, we know three things for sure:

First, we are created equal and loved equally by God, no matter where we come from.
Second, God is always on side of justice and never on the side of cruelty.
Third, families belong together.

 

The Problem

Current policies do not reflect these steadfast beliefs.

 

Our broken system leaves millions of workers in the shadows, vulnerable to abuse because they lack documentation, and unable to fully participate in a country they have helped build.  The mismatch between outdated policies and the economic realities of our country has led to an unauthorized immigrant population and thousands of deaths at the border. 

 

The Solution
 

Comprehensive immigration reform that makes sense for America and its newcomers.

 

We need a new approach to managing migration.  We can regulate immigration if we require hardworking, taxpaying immigrants to legalize, welcome a limited number of future workers and families but set those limits so that they are realistic, enforceable, and reflect the needs of our economy.  We need a “smart border” strategy that screens and inspects people and cargo to keep out security threats, while admitting immigrants and goods that strengthen our nation.  Such a strategy will make immigration safe, orderly, and legal instead of deadly, chaotic, and operating outside the bounds of the law.

 

Requiring and allowing citizenship for those here and contributing

 

Requiring the current undocumented population to pay a fine and get on the path to citizenship would benefit both hardworking immigrants and their families and established workers and employers, by providing immigrant workers with the same labor protections as their native-born co-workers, stabilizing our labor force and raising wages for all.

 

Expanded family and worker visas 

 

America needs to harmonize public policy with the factors that drive migration: family unity and economic opportunity.  We need to restructure our family preference system so that newcomers aren’t forced to choose between long separations from their American families or seeking entry without authorization.  We need a worker visa program that provides legal visas, family unity, full labor rights, labor mobility, and a way to become a legal, permanent resident and eventually citizen.

 

Smart enforcement that doesn’t criminalize decent people

 

Effective enforcement requires laws that are enforceable and border operations that efficiently screen those who enter, crack down on human traffickers, police the border with professionalism and accountability, and penalize employers who exploit workers and undermine law-abiding competitors.  We call for an end to local, piecemeal enforcement of federal laws, which often leads to racial profiling and causes immigrant communities to live in fear-- our faith calls us to firmly reject both racism and fear.  We also reject measures that criminalize immigrants who do not have documents and cause them to be treated as less than human; smart enforcement will focus on true criminals who jeopardize our communities’ safety while fixing the system that leaves so many without a way to become legal.

 

Integrate immigrants fully into American society

 

Our country needs reform that includes facilitating immigrants learning English, becoming citizens, participating in civic life as well as providing equitable access to essential services.

 

The Timeline

 

The time to fix the broken immigration system is NOW.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced a reform bill (CIR-ASAP) into the House of Representatives in December of 2010. Sens. Schumer (D-NY) and Graham (R-SC) have published the blueprint for the senate bill they plan to introduce.

 

Polling data from America’s Voice, released in January 2010, show that large majorities of Americans (2/3) want Congress to pass comprehensive reform, including 69% of Democrats, 67% of Independents, and 62% of Republicans.  The poll also shows that 66 percent of voters support a program that requires undocumented immigrants to register, meet certain requirements, and become legal taxpayers on their way to becoming full U.S. citizens. 

 

America's economic situation makes Immigration Reform urgent

Employers being able to pay low wages to unauthorized workers makes wages lower for all of us. Requiring all workers to legalize would raise everyone's wages.

 

Because of our broken immigration system, people who have lived, worked, raised families and contributed to our economy for decades aren't able to pay their complete taxes and participate fully in our market. Immigration Reform would add $1.5 trillion to America's economy over 10 years in taxes, higher wages for all workers and immigrants spending in our economy.

 

Victories

  

From the period of December ’09 to April ’10, Gamaliel affiliates across the network organized over 100 prayer vigils in front of the offices of their members of Congress.  These vigils, ranging in size from 10 to 800 leaders, earned us media, meetings with key members of Congress, and stronger organizations.  Gamaliel affiliates will continue the serious work of pushing our representatives and senators to do the right thing and support a just, comprehensive immigration reform.  We simultaneously organize around local issues to ensure that the civil rights of immigrants are upheld on our city streets as well as at our nation’s capitol.

 

MOSES won an anti-profiling ordinance in the City of Detroit in May by bringing together Muslim, Christian, Arab, Latino, African-American member institutions.   The ordinance was the first of its kind in Michigan by not only protecting immigrants from police harassment of their documentation but also Muslims against being profiled because of how they dress and anyone from racial profiling.

 

WISDOM mobilized fifty leaders well as the Wisconsin Department of Transportation so that 150 undocumented people received driver’s licenses, and at least 300 obtained state ID cards before the April 1, 2007 deadline when Wisconsin’s version of the “REAL ID” law took effect.

  

ABLE leaders in the Atlanta area worked with the new mayor of Sandy Springs to address massive police “traffic” stops that targeted Latinos and involved a dozen police vehicles, half parked on church property.  The mayor committed to establishing a Spanish speaking hotline for Spanish speakers to call the police without fear of being arrested.

 

Gamaliel of Metro Chicago trained 200 volunteers to help 1000 Legal Permanent Residents apply for Citizenship and delivered 10,000 petition letters for comprehensive reform to Sen. Durbin, Sen. Obama, Congressman Gutierrez, and Congressman Jackson, Jr.

 

ISAIAH, working in coalition, passed similar ICE/ City Separation ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul.  These ordinances effectively separate the city functions from the federal immigration enforcement and prohibit city officials, including police officers, from inquiring about a person’s immigration status unless required by state or Federal law.  These ordinances allow immigrants to more fully participate in the community and feel safe to report crimes.