Congress has remained pretty quiet lately on the subject of immigration, but the impacts of the broken immigrations system continue to disrupt our communities. I'll share a bit of news with you from Monday, July 5 to Monday, July 12.
On July 6, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Arizona over S.B. 1070, the new immigration law that would require police officers to check the legal status of anyone they "reasonably suspect" to be an undocumented immigrant. You can read more about it on our "breaking news" blog post from that date. In addition, Attorney General Eric Holder has requested an injunction to prevent S.B. 1070 from going into effect at the end of the month.
In an effort to push back against hate rhetoric in our communities, FCNL has developed a Letters-to-the-Editor Toolkit for you. Letters to the editor take no more time to write than emails to Congress, and by writing for a public forum, you can potentially influence both your state and federal legislators and many of the voters who elect them.
I've been listening to podcasts from a workshop on detention in the United Kingdom, "Meaning & Practice of Immigration Detention - Perspectives from Legal, Social & Political Theory." The lectures examine the legal and political frameworks as well as the social impact of immigration detention and asylum.
Unemployed? We've got a solution for you. Stephen Colbert and the United Farm Workers have teamed up to promote a new tongue-in-cheek campaign, "Take Our Jobs." This campaign hopes to "recruit U.S. citizens and legal residents to fill jobs that frequently go to undocumented farm workers and to urge enactment of immigration reform."
I'll leave you with a wonderful thought piece from Taquiena Boston, the Director of Multicultural Growth and Witness with the Unitarian Universalist Association, who writes:
In multicultural ministry borders or “la frontera” are described as places where encounter, conflict, and transformation can occur when people of faith use our collective power to amplify the voices and concerns of the oppressed. To my mind when Unitarian Universalists voted at the Minneapolis General Assembly to act in solidarity with Puente and others to support immigrant justice, our movement waded into the turbulence of a human rights issue that puts us at odds with the majority of Americans. To paraphrase an African American spiritual, Unitarian Universalists made a commitment to “trouble the borders.”
Now that the U.S. Justice Department has challenged the constitutionality of Arizona’s SB 1070 legislation, I hope that our movement will not think that we can relax our efforts around immigration...
Never seen the Grand Canyon? Here's your chance. Alto Arizona, with immigrant, faith, labor, law enforcement, and civil rights organizations across the country, are planning a national day of action on May 29th to showcase our powerful opposition to the new Arizona law.
If you are able to, please consider traveling to Arizona to join the brave organizers in marching to the State Capitol. To plan your trip and learn about more ways to get involved, click here. Or, coordinate a march in your own state.
The national day of action comes at a critical moment - major civil rights organizations have just filed a lawsuit against the new Arizona law. This lawsuit is intended to stop racial profiling in its tracks and ensure that what happens in Arizona STOPS in Arizona.
The authors of the lawsuit include: the ACLU, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, ACLU of Arizona, National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.
Welcome back for another week of immigration news, from Monday, May 10 to Monday, May 17. Happy reading!
Arizona's new immigration law, which requires racial profiling, goes into effect on July 28. However, some people just aren't that patient. We've heard scattered reports that Arizona police officers are already "enforcing" the new law. What's more, twelve states - including Minnesota, Michigan, and more - are introducing copy-cat legislation. These outrageous proposals should be a wake-up call for Congress -urge your representatives to take swift action to enact immigration reform this year.
Boycotting Arizona? Yup, me too. So is Austin, along with many other cities across the country. We're also waiting for MALDEF, ACLU, and NILC to introduce their lawsuit challenging the unconstitutional and discriminatory Arizona law. The Department of Justice may take action as well, but we are concerned to learn that Attorney General Eric Holder hasn't even read the Arizona law yet. We know he's busy, but it's less than twenty pages.
Mexico has issued a travel warning to its citizens about the Arizona law. In addition, the President of Mexico will be arriving in the United States on Wednesday. We anticipate that he and President Obama will have a lot to discuss when it comes to immigration.
Even the United Nations is taking note of the new Arizona law. A group of independent UN rights experts expressed serious concerns about whether this law violates the United States' obligations under international human rights treaties.
Believe it or not, Arizona keeps coming up with new, innovative ways to take away residents' rights, and now state lawmakers are focusing on education. AZ Governor Jan Brewer just signed into law a bill prohibiting any classes that "advocate for ethnic solidarity" or "promote resentment toward a race or class of people." This bill seeks to eradicate ethnic studies programs, such as those that teach Mexican-American history. I see this as a nativist impulse favoring revisionist history, which seeks to mask oppression and deny students the opportunity to study civil rights. We can do better.
However, the Department of Homeland Security seems to be deporting immigrants at an exceptionally rapid pace this year even without Arizona's assistance. ICE director John Morton has said that he plans to deport people at a "massive scale," and he has set the goal of 400,000 deportations in 2010. He seems to be outdoing himself. Time has reported this astonishing figure:
Thus far this year, some 185,887 people have been deported, a record pace that, if maintained, will nearly double the number of deportations in 2010 to 604,133.
One last note: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has an announcement - the new "green cards" for legal permanent residents will actually be green! Not only that, but they'll incorporate new security measures to avoid fraud.
The heat from Arizona continues to radiate, so check out the news on immigration from Monday, May 3 to Monday, May 10:
At FCNL, we see the outrageous Arizona law as a wake-up call to Washington. On April 29, five senators introduced a framework for immigration reform, which was met with mixed reactions from advocates. The framework, intended to prompt bipartisan talks, has yet to yield such cooperation. We can't afford to have politicians use immigration reform as a political football to score points against one another. Write to your senators today to urge them to support humane, comprehensive immigration reform. As Congress remains bound by hyper-partisan politics, states mimicking Arizona continue to take immigration law into their own hands. Minnesota just introduced legislation modeled exactly on the Arizona law. Eleven other states are considering similar legislation: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pensylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Recent polling shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans think the immigration system should be overhauled, but without decisive federal action to build a realistic legal immigration system, our civil rights will continue to be trampled.
However, in two cases, officials are standing up to say NO. In New York, Governor Paterson announced that the state would consider pardons for people subject to "embarrassingly and wrongly inflexible" immigration laws. In DC, the City Council unanimously supports a boycott of Arizona and opposes the District's participation in misguided immigration enforcement programs - for more, see my blog post on the resolutions.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, best known for his courageous efforts to promote reconciliation following South Africa's apartheid, has a message for you: Arizona is not the solution. I strongly encourage you to read his entire article, excerpted here:
Abominations such as apartheid do not start with an entire population suddenly becoming inhumane. They start here. They start with generalizing unwanted characteristics across an entire segment of a population. They start with trying to solve a problem by asserting superior force over a population. They start with stripping people of rights and dignity - such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty - that you yourself enjoy. Not because it is right, but because you can. And because somehow, you think this is going to solve a problem.
I'll leave you with an exciting tidbit - Arizona rappers have collaborated to protest the new law requiring racial profiling. Props to these brave artists for reminding us all that hip hop can still break through commercial ties and speak truth to power. Check out their music video here:
Arizona's new law, S.B. 1070, is the harshest anti-immigration law in decades. Although the law doesn't go into effect for 90 days (and will be challenged in court), here are five steps that you can take now to protest this blatant violation of civil rights.
1. Tell your friends.
Start a conversation at the dinner table, out for coffee, or on the bus. Talk with your friends about how this bill starts the United States on a slippery slope toward widespread racial profiling. Hear their thoughts. Get emotional. Talk it out. Stay informed.
2. Tell the president.
Detention Watch Network is compiling action alerts to stop the implementation of the new Arizona law. Click here to participate.
3. Take your money and run.
Reps. Grijalva (AZ), Gutierrez (IL), and Polis (CO) have called for economic sanctions against Arizona. The American Immigration Lawyers Association has already canceled their national conference in Arizona and relocated it to another state. While this action is debatable - should the entire state be punished for the lawmakers' actions? - you can participate, if you choose, by boycotting Arizona products and tourism.
4. Take to the streets.
Immigration may very well be THE the civil rights issue of the 21st century. In 90 days, when this new law is scheduled to go into effect, join Rev. Al Sharpton's "freedom walkers" in Arizona to challenge racial profiling and stand in solidarity with the Hispanic community.
5. Stand up and be counted. Follow this innovative suggestion from Linda Greenhouse:
So what to do in the meantime? Here’s a modest proposal. Everyone remembers the wartime Danish king who drove through Copenhagen wearing a Star of David in support of his Jewish subjects. It’s an apocryphal story, actually, but an inspiring one. Let the good people of Arizona — and anyone passing through — walk the streets of Tucson and Phoenix wearing buttons that say: I Could Be Illegal.
Last year, 383,524 immigrants were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security responsible for enforcing immigration laws. That's over a third of a million people.
For the sake of comparison, the number of Quakers worldwide is about 360,000.
Immigration detention has drastically expanded in the past fifteen years. The number of immigrants held annually in jail-like detention facilities has tripled since 1996. Even under the Obama administration, these numbers keep on rising.
To justify this dramatic increase, ICE officials have repeatedly stated that the agency focuses on arresting, detaining, and deporting "dangerous criminal aliens" who pose a threat to public safety or national security.
Now, a recent ICE memo leaked to the press indicates that ICE is trying to arrest and detain as many people as possible - not just dangerous criminals - in order to meet quotas. According to the memo, ICE has set a goal of detaining at least 400,000 immigrants in 2010. To meet this goal, the memo continues, ICE plans to ramp up efforts to catch undocumented immigrants who had never committed a violent crime - because they can be deported more quickly than those with criminal backgrounds. (ICE later withdrew the memo but declined to offer a public explanation for why it had originally been issued.)
To catch more non-criminal immigrants, ICE relies on controversial local enforcement programs. These programs authorize police officers to enforce immigration laws. As a recent governmental report indicates, local enforcement programs lack oversight and have resulted in the widespread use of racial profiling.
As a result, more people get trapped in the broken immigration system every year. Immigration prosecutions have skyrocketed in recent years, overwhelming the courts. Immigration judges lack the resources to process immigration cases in a timely manner. Tens of thousands of immigrants languish in detention facilities as they wait for their cases to be heard, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
Yet ICE continues to insist that its methods are justified.
This is backwards reasoning. Taxpayers' money should not be wasted on expensive and ineffective enforcement programs. You can't deport your way into a workable immigration system.
We've tried the enforcement-only approach, and it doesn't work. We urgently need immigration reform in order to create a legal immigration system that works for everyone.
Urge your members of Congress to support immigration reform. FCNL has created a new set of talking points for you to use when you contact your senators and representatives. Write a letter to your representative or schedule a lobby visit with your senator today!
Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) wrote an op-ed together yesterday, which provides broad outlines of their bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate. The bill proposes reforms including stringent border and workplace enforcement measures, the creation of a national biometric ID card for both U.S. citizens and immigrants, and a legalization program for undocumented immigrants already in the United States.
The White House responded to the op-ed with a statement from President Obama, saying, "I pledge to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year on this important issue so we can continue to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform." Senator Reid also issued a statement saying he is committed to bringing this bill to the floor when it is ready.
While draft language on the Senate bill has not yet been released, at FCNL we support the CIR ASAP bill, which was introduced in the House in December 2009. This bill protects family unity, provides a workable legalization program, and protects immigrants' civil and human rights. To urge your representative to support this bill, send a letter today.
Meanwhile, many thousands of immigration advocates have started the trek to Washington, DC, to rally on Sunday afternoon. Individuals whose loved ones have been deported, who have been denied fair wages, whose children cannot attend college because they lack papers, will all converge on the National Mall to say that the time for immigration reform is now.
Don't miss it! We hope you can join us and tens of thousands of supporters this weekend. Si se puede!
Don't miss out on the action! Over 100,000 supporters of immigration reform will gather this Sunday, March 21st, on the National Mall to witness the urgent need for immigration reform. Grab a friend, grab a sign, and join us!
Last week, President Obama met with Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), who are working together to draft a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate. However, negotiations are ongoing and immigrant families cannot wait any longer. The time for immigration reform is now.
As people of faith, we can't sit by as the broken immigration system rips apart families and communities. Join us in Washington DC to urge Congress to pass just, humane immigration reform.
We have a busy week ahead of us here in Washington! In this post, you'll find some updates from last week and - more importantly - previews of this week's events! Grab your coffee cup and let's get started.
Last Thursday, President Obama met with Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Senator Lindsey Graham (SC), who are working together to draft a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate. This high-profile meeting was met with cautious enthusiasm by immigration advocates, who are pressing Schumer and Graham to release a blueprint of their bill before the much-anticipated immigration rally this Sunday.
Following the meeting, President Obama issued this statement: "Today I met with Senators Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system. I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find commonsense answers to one of our most vexing problems. I also heard from a diverse group of grassroots leaders from around the country about the growing coalition that is working to build momentum for this critical issue. I am optimistic that their efforts will contribute to a favorable climate for moving forward. I told both the Senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort."
Senator Schumer remains "optimistic" about advancing immigration reform while Senator Graham sees difficulties in hyperpartisanship. Schumer and Graham are on the search for a second Republican cosponsor of the bill, and they continue to seek a compromise between business and labor leaders about the future of worker visas. We encourage these senators to put pen to paper and share their plan for immigration reform publicly in the near future.
We have learned that Schumer and Graham's proposal for immigration reform may include a biometric national identification card. All U.S. citizens and green card holders would be required to carry this card, as would immigrants with other statuses. This is a concerning development that would raise all sorts of privacy and profiling concerns. We hope that clarification on this proposal comes swiftly.
A final vote on the health care bill is expected by the end of this week, but what's in it for immigrants? Immigrants' access to health care remains a hotly contested issue in the House. In the current version of the bill, undocumented immigrants cannot obtain health insurance even if they are willing to buy an individual plan with their own money. Advocates are hard at work trying to improve access and lift the 5-year bar for Medicaid, in which legal immigrants have to wait five years before they are eligible for the Medicaid program. It is unreasonable to expect anyone, regardless of their legal status, to wait 5 years for health care.
Immigration enforcement hit close to home this week. On Thursday morning, several simultaneous raids in Maryland resulted in 29 people being taken into custody by federal immigration agents. ICE claims that the raids are intended “to ensure that employers are held accountable for maintaining a legal work force.” However, raids, even when conducted in a humane manner, unfairly punish employees while letting employers off the hook.
So, what's in store for us this week?
It's not too late to register for Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Christians from across the country will gather in D.C. this weekend to discuss immigration reform, refugees, and displaced peoples. Join us for workshops, discussions, and advocacy training, as well as a day of lobbying on Monday, March 22nd!
The Reform Immigration For America campaign, in coordination with the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, is organizing a huge immigration rally on March 21st! Over 100,000 people are expected to gather to witness the urgent need for immigration reform. We hope you can join us on the National Mall on Sunday afternoon!!
As the snow melts in DC and the cherry blossoms are on the verge of appearing, we're renewing our efforts to urge Congress to support immigration reform. To get the latest updates, just keep on reading! Here is your news on immigration from Monday, March 1 to Monday, March 8.
We've been working to drum up support for the CIR ASAP bill (H.R. 4321), a bill which proposes humane reforms for the immigration system. This bill would help keep families together, allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows, and protect immigrants civil and human rights. We just got another cosponsor, putting the total at 94! Let's try to break 100. You can help push reforms forward by contacting your representative today!
You may have seen advertisements about the Census, and we're encouraging everyone to participate. In order to make sure that communities get fair representation and federal funds, it is important to get an accurate Census count. Please talk to your neighbors to check if they're filling out their forms!
Prepare to be scanned, weighed, and valued: Congress may soon expand the reach of the controversial E-Verify program, which would check the identities of new employees against a national database in order to confirm their immigration status. However, E-Verify raises concerns about accuracy, privacy, and fairness. Expanding workplace enforcement is no substitution for real immigration reform, which would allow workers to come to the US legally in line with the real needs of the US economy. Marc Rosenblum has more in this opinion piece.
The Obama administration is working on overhauling the immigration detention system and advocates are cautiously supportive of this initiative. However, the majority of detention facilities are run by private contractors, not the federal government. How will these contractors be held accountable? Watch this video to learn more.
Meanwhile, thousands of immigrants - the vast majority of whom are non-criminal - continue to be detained and deported without access to a fair trial. Minnesota Public Radio reports on one man's struggle to remain in the United States so he could support his children. Spoiler alert: This story, unlike many others, actually has a happy ending!
Hello again and welcome back to your local source for immigration news! We're still digging out after more than 40 inches of snow fell in DC last week. To catch us up a bit, here are highlights from Monday, February 8 to Tuesday, February 16. Happy reading!
The faith community continues to push for comprehensive immigration reform, delivering tens of thousands of postcards to members of Congress and coordinating prayer vigils across the country. More than 100 faith events will be held in February, from South Carolina to Washington State. The Interfaith Immigration Coalition has made available an organizing guide so that you, too, can gather your community together to raise awareness about the need for reform.
Without comprehensive immigration reform, the broken immigration system creates headaches and difficulties for employers and employees alike. Two new articles - available here and here - document the challenges facing foreign farm workers, who would benefit directly from a comprehensive reform bill. Workers, compelled out of economic necessity to immigrate without the proper documents, face poor working conditions and low wages. Employers, under pressure to increase wages and fulfill Labor Department rules, struggle to keep their businesses viable. The one thing they all agree on? The time for reform is now.
Workers aren't the only ones suffering - families divided by immigration laws face serious hardships in raising their children. This heartbreaking article from the New York Times documents the life of Elizabeth Encalada. Her husband, an immigrant from Ecuador, was ordered back to his home country. He then killed himself upon learning that he would be unable to return to the United States to reunite with his family. The family visa system is clogged with applications, compelling families who play by the rules to turn to desperate measures.
The Immigration Policy Center has released a special report, "Many Happy Returns," on how remittances can help Haiti recover and strengthen the U.S. economy. Many of this country's immigrants send a large chunk of their earnings back to their families and communities in their country of origin. On the surface, it might seem like this money is just disappearing from the U.S. economy, but really, it boosts U.S. participation in the global economy.
A federal judge asks whether it's worth the cost of prosecuting non-criminal immigrants, and a new report by TRAC indicates that the majority of immigrants held in detention centers by ICE have never been convicted of any crime. Even though ICE claims to focus on non-citizens who pose a real threat to public safety, the numbers tell a different story. ICE's director, John Morton, says, "This isn't a question of whether or not we will detain people. We will detain people, and we will detain them on a grand scale." Morton's comment leads us to ask, "But why?"
But don't let me leave you with a rhetorical question - ask the government yourself! The Department of Homeland Security has created an "Open Government" website and they want your input. From now until March 19, you can submit ideas and questions to DHS about how to increase transparency about how the agency manages the immigration detention system.
"Racism and racial discrimination have profoundly and lastingly marked and structured American society." ~ U.N. Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
In 2003, the Department of Justice issued a fact sheet on racial profiling that identifies many of the concerns shared by communities around the country, whose members may find themselves subject to discrimination because of their appearance, national origin, or other identifying characteristics. Racial profiling harms not only communities but also federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, which may be distracted from their real work ensuring the safety and security of the communities under their jurisdiction.
This fact sheet, available here as a PDF, addresses guidelines on racial profiling set forth by the Department of Justice in 2003. While these guidelines are an important step in the process of eliminating racial profiling, they still have loopholes and omissions that allow for some of the very behavior that the guidance is intended to regulate.
The 2003 Department of Justice Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Law Enforcement Agencies:
Allows for profiling based on religion and national origin;
Includes loopholes that allow profiling at borders in the name of "national security;"
Doesn’t apply to all federal law enforcement activity;
Isn’t enforceable; and
Doesn’t consistently apply to state or local law enforcement agencies working in cooperation with federal agencies or receiving federal money.
To sign a petition urging the Department of Justice to strengthen their 2003 guidelines on racial profiling, please visit the Rights Working Group webpage, available here.
With the State of the Union and the release of the federal budget, this week has been a busy time for folks in Washington, DC. With that, take a look at the news on immigration from Monday, January 25 to Monday, February 1. Happy reading!
The State of the Union was this past Wednesday and if you stuck around until the end, you heard President Obama put in a brief word on the need to keep working to fix the broken immigration system. Here, Immigration Impact bloggers offer their own interpretation of the speech. In response, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL), the author of the CIR ASAP bill to comprehensively reform the immigration system, wrote a powerful op-ed piece calling on Congress to take action.
Here at FCNL, we're urging you to do your part to advance President Obama's vision by organizing a prayer vigil in your community this February. By standing together in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors, we can show that we still believe that immigration reform can't wait. Take a look at the Interfaith Immigration Coalition's planning guide to coordinate your own prayer vigil today!
On Monday, January 25, DHS Assistant Secretary John Morton spoke at the Migration Policy Institute about his plans to overhaul the immigration detention system. Morton is working to create a civil detention system that would replace the jail-like model that currently detains over 30,000 immigrants a day. While we welcome the administration's commitment to reform, we urge Assistant Secretary Morton and his team to work diligently to determine who really needs to be held in detention facilities and who can be released.
As Victoria Lopez writes in the Arizona Daily Star, the immigration detention system lacks transparency and accountability. Many facilities, like this one in Georgia, are run by private prison corporations, which lack the training and oversight to manage a population of civil immigrant detainees. In Colorado, protestors and our friends with the American Friends Service Committee gather regularly outside the Aurora detention facility.
Detention reforms will become all the more important as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) expands their Secure Communities program throughout the country. This program, which checks fingerprints in local jails against an immigration database, is meant to capture high-level criminals who are in violation of immigration laws. Instead, Secure Communities ends up focusing primarily on nonviolent offenders, who get caught in the net and may then be detained and deported. Nationally, Secure Communities accounts for about 40% of the immigrants held in jail-like detention centers that are known for human rights abuses.
The United States and the international community continue to respond to the disaster in Haiti by providing emergency humanitarian relief. The extreme devastation has left people across the country wondering, What more can we do? An op-ed in the Washington Post opines that the U.S. government should accelerate visa processing for Haitians who have family members in the United States. Many of these visa applicants have been waiting four years or more to reunite with their loved ones.
Today, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL), author of the CIR ASAP bill introduced in December in the House, wrote a powerful op-ed piece in the Huffington Post.
Rep. Gutierrez expressed concern that President Obama "did not go far enough for the four million American citizen children whose parents face deportation; the millions of Americans waiting to be reunited with loved ones overseas; hardworking Americans whose security is undermined in the workplace; women who are physically and sexually exploited on the floors of meatpacking plants; or the $1.5 trillion lacking from our Gross Domestic Product, all in the absence of real reform."
He argues, "Congress cannot wait for the President to lay out our timeline for comprehensive reform." His bill, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009, would fix the broken immigration system by keeping families together, allowing immigrants to integrate more fully into society, and protecting immigrants from detention.
I'll leave you with one other quote from Rep. Gutierrez's article. He writes:
"They care that we do the job we've been elected to do. But if we walk away from the tough fights --like immigration reform-- because it's hard or because it's politically risky, we're not just writing our own political eulogy; we're sentencing millions of families to a life of injustice."
In his first State of the Union address, President Obama focused on the economy, job creation, financial regulatory reform, and health care reform. He called for an end to hyper-partisanship in Congress and, toward the end of his speech, identified domestic priorities including the need to "continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system." FCNL continues to work with Congress to advance immigration reform legislation.
The president also spoke more broadly of the need to value diversity. He stated, "Abroad, America's greatest source of strength has always been our ideals. The same is true at home. We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution, the notion that we're all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law, you should be protected by it, if you adhere to our common values, you should be treated no different than anyone else." We hope that President Obama carries forward this commitment by resisting the temptation to resort to racial profiling in the name of national security.
In one of the last lines of the speech, he said: "I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it is." As we've worked on immigration reform over the past year, we've tried to counter impassioned, hateful rhetoric with civil dialogue and quiet witness. We saw that in our Breaking Bread and Barriers potlucks in the fall, and now we're asking you to join us again this February by organizing prayer vigils in your community.
These prayer vigils, in solidarity with our country's immigrants, send a clear message to Congress that we remain committed to immigration reform. In order to fix the broken system and restore dignity and rights for all, we need to stand together. Take a look at the Interfaith Immigration Coalition's prayer vigil organizing guide to start planning yours today.
The United States and the international community continue to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake that struck on Tuesday evening. As a complement to the comprehensive relief and development efforts, the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has announced that it will temporarily halt all deportations to Haiti. While this announcement comes as welcome news, it does not mean that the Obama administration has granted Temporary Protected Status to Haitian immigrants.
By granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians in the United States, the U.S. government would not only halt all deportations of Haitians from the United States to Haiti, but would also allow Haitian immigrants to obtain work permits. TPS would enable Haitian immigrants to better support their families and communities as they anxiously wait for the situation in Haiti to stabilize.
TPS is a temporary immigration status that does not allow its recipients to remain in the United States permanently. Rather, it protects people who cannot safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflicts, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary circumstances. For more on TPS, see the USCIS website. There are currently 30,000 Haitians in the United States facing deportation to Haiti, who would immediately benefit from TPS.
The United States and the world community are mobilizing to respond to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti yesterday. That quake reportedly has killed upwards of 100,000 people and destroyed large parts of the country. All of us will be looking for ways to support those organizations working on the ground in Haiti to respond to this tragedy. Work in Haiti will not be enough, though.
Here in the United States, the administration should also immediately act to halt its deportation of Haitians, release those Haitians currently in detention centers, and give them a way to survive temporarily in this country. The administration can do this by granting Haitians in this country Temporary Protected Status, which would halt deportations and permit Haitians already in the United States to live and work here.
Because of the economic crisis in Haiti, FCNL has been lobbying for nearly a year for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians here in the United States. Now the need is even more urgent.
Happy New Year! The turn of the year carries with it a new reason for hope - the chance for Congress to make good on its promise to humanely reform the broken immigration system. With the new year comes new opportunities for us to recommit ourselves to the struggle for justice.
On December 15, Representative Luis Gutierrez (IL) and 91 original cosponsors unveiled the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (H.R. 4321), which proposes reforms for the broken immigration system. The bill would promote family unity, bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, and uphold immigrants' human and civil rights.
Creating alternatives to detention would be a bold step in fixing this country's broken immigration system. Before we get into alternatives, let's take a brief look back to see what we've learned so far.
We've learned that immigration is a human rights issue. Protecting the human rights of all immigrants, including those held in detention centers, is critical in order to restore the credibility of the U.S. immigration system.
We've learned that lacking the proper documentation is a civil offense, not a criminal offense. Even so, undocumented immigrants are being treated as if they were criminals - they are detained in detention centers across the country and deported at times without ever appearing before a judge. These immigrants deserve better.
We've learned that the conditions in detention facilities are substandard and that members of vulnerable populations are not sufficiently protected. While these conditions need to be improved, ultimately the number of people held in immigration detention centers must be reduced.
This final post will discuss humane and cost-effective alternatives to detention.
Before we dive into the details, let's watch a video from Human Rights First about the need for alternatives to detention for asylum seekers. Then we'll take a look at what it will take to create a nation-wide system of alternatives that works for everyone.
In order to move toward a more humane approach to immigration enforcement, the U.S. government should develop alternatives to detention in a systematic way. Currently, some alternatives exist here and there, but much more could be done to create humane alternatives on a national scale. A systematic approach to reform will ensure that all immigrants are treated equally.
What would humane alternatives to detention look like?
The first step in creating nation-wide alternatives to detention is establishing a standardized assessment. When each individual detainee is apprehended, ICE would conduct an assessment that would examine the detainee's risks and needs. Questions on risks would establish whether the detainee could be considered a flight risk or a threat to public safety. Questions on needs would determine whether the detainee belongs to a vulnerable population, whether they have a claim to citizenship or legal status, whether they need medical care, and so on.
By conducting this assessment, ICE would have a much better sense of who exactly is in its custody. The agency would then be well-positioned to consider whether detention is appropriate for each individual.
The next step would be to determine whether it makes sense to detain each individual. We're not talking about an either-or proposition here, as if either a person is detained or released. Instead, we're talking about creating a continuum of different alternative-to-detention options.
ICE would use its risk and needs assessment to determine which option is most suitable for each detainee. That way, ICE would treat each detainee individually instead of using the current one-size-fits-all approach in which detention is the default.
In this continuum, detention would be a last resort.
Let's start by looking at the least restrictive end of the continuum. At the far end, immigrant detainees who are non-criminal and do not pose a risk to society could be released on parole. They would be expected to appear to their court dates on their own. Others could be released into community-based or faith-based programs, where they would receive support as their cases proceed. Others could be enrolled in alternative-to-detention programs that would include regular check-ins with an officer or telephonic reporting. These would be the non-custodial alternatives to detention.
The more restrictive options in the continuum would be alternative forms of detention (as opposed to alternatives to detention). The most common of these forms is electronic monitoring, through ankle bracelets. Detainees in these programs could also be expected to check in regularly or adhere to a curfew. Then, moving up the scale, immigrant detainees could be held in residential facilities. Finally, those who are deemed a flight risk or a threat to public safety could be held in less restrictive detention facilities or traditional detention facilities as appropriate.
Essentially, detention would no longer be the first option. It would be the last. This continuum of alternatives would ensure that detention - an extreme measure - would only be used when it is absolutely necessary.
In political parlance, such a continuum would create a presumption against detention. The burden would be on the U.S. government to prove why immigrants should be detained, instead of on those in its custody to prove why they should not be detained.
Is this continuum of alternatives to detention possible?
It is not only possible, but necessary. The current immigration detention system is inefficient, costly, and prone to human rights abuses. Creating alternatives to detention would improve this system.
Pilot programs for alternatives to detention have demonstrated high levels of compliance, in that almost all participants still showed up for their court dates and removal orders. If people feel that they're receiving due process, if they respect the system and feel that they've been heard, then they're more likely to respect the final decision on removal.
In addition, creating a nation-wide system of alternatives to detention would save money. Alternatives cost as little as $12 per person per day, while traditional detention costs, on average, $95 per person per day. Finally, alternatives would make the system fair by keeping people out of detention who don't belong there.
The ultimate goal is to safely and humanely reduce the number of immigrants in detention. Creating a continuum of alternatives to detention would be a workable solution that would fix the broken immigration enforcement system and uphold this country's commitment to justice.
So call or write your Representatives and Senators and tell them that the time for immigration reform is now. Encourage them to include humane detention and due process reforms in comprehensive immigration reform. Contact the Department of Homeland Security and tell them that the government should use its discretion to create alternatives to detention. Speak up in church, at school, or at home and tell your community about how to support workable solutions to this broken immigration detention system that disrupts the lives of so many each day.
Want to learn more, or share what you've learned with others? Check out these resources on detention and alternatives to detention.
The Detention Watch Network is an excellent resource for information on detention and due process. Click here for their alternatives to detention fact sheet. Click here for the Rights Working Group fact sheet on detention and due process.
Wondering whether there's a detention center near you? Click here to see a map of detention facilities around the country. Want to get some friends together and visit detainees? Read this detention visitation manual to learn how to connect your community with immigrant detainees.
To read more stories on detention, visit this website from the Detention Watch Network.
To be neutral in a situation of injustice is to have chosen sides already.
Your Senators need to hear from you! They will vote tomorrow (Thursday) on an amendment that, if passed, would block access to the most effective and humane courts for criminal prosecutions of Guantanamo detainees.
This amendment favors military commissions, which do not achieve the same standard of justice as federal civilian courts. The amendment, introduced by Senator Graham (SC), would prohibit funding for Guantanamo detainees to be prosecuted in U.S. civilian courts. Detainees would instead be tried by military commissions. However, military commissions are fundamentally flawed. The ACLU has released a press statement calling military commissions a "second class system of justice."
This amendment would needlessly tie the President's hands in determining how to process Guantanamo detainees' cases. President Obama signed an executive order in January 2009 stating that the U.S. government would close the Guantanamo prison within one year. The Graham amendment would likely delay the closing of Guantanamo.
Call your Senators today and tell them to vote NO on the Graham amendment (S.A. 2669) to the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R. 2847). By telling your Senators that Guantanamo detainees should be tried in federal civilian courts, not military commissions, you can help to repair the standing of the U.S. as a country committed to human rights and the rule of law. Call your Senators today at (202) 224-3121.
Looking for more information? Click here for a news article on the Graham amendment. Click here for a coalition letter against this amendment signed by prominent human rights organizations.
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