|
 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Douglas Rivlin ([email protected]) Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year? House Democrats Call for Congressional Action and Announce Principles;Bipartisan Senate Bill Introduced Last Week; Momentum Builds for Immigration Reform
Washington, DC - Today the House Democratic Leadership and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus reiterated their strong commitment to comprehensive immigration reform and detailed the components that are needed to fix our nation’s broken immigration system. The National Immigration Forum, one of the premier immigrant advocacy organizations in the country, congratulates House Democratic leaders for this initiative, concurs with the principles for reform announced today, and calls on both Democrats and Republicans to work on a bipartisan basis to craft balanced and comprehensive immigration reform legislation that can be passed into law sooner rather than later. “Today’s announcement constitutes a major advance in the effort to enact reforms that live up to our tradition as both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,” said Frank Sharry, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. “Coming just a week after Senators Hagel and Daschle introduced a strong bipartisan bill combining most of the key elements needed to properly fix our immigration system, it builds on the momentum created by President Bush’s announcement in favor of immigration reform earlier this month.” Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Tom Daschle (D-SD) introduced their bipartisan bill, the Immigration Reform Act of 2004 (S. 2010), on January 21, while the President announced his principles for immigration reform at a White House speech on January 7. “The events of the last three weeks represent a historic turning point in the debate,” Sharry said. “Comprehensive immigration reform is an idea whose time has come. The question is no longer if we should reform our immigration system, nor is it any longer a question of when, because it appears the train is ready to roll. Now the hard work begins on how we fix the system because the details really matter.” The challenge before Congress is clear: to fashion comprehensive and coherent immigration reform legislation that, over time, makes migration safe, legal, and orderly. To achieve this, many moving parts need to be integrated intelligently so that our immigration system evolves into one that reflects migration realities, restores the rule of law, rewards the hard work of immigrants, respects U.S. workers, recognizes the legitimate needs of U.S. employers, reunites families in a timely fashion, renews citizenship and assimilation as the cornerstones of our success as a nation of immigrants, and rebuilds public confidence in the safety, security, and orderliness of our immigration policies. “It will not be easy to accomplish this, but the task is urgent,” Sharry said. From the National Immigration Forum’s point of view, the key elements of reform are as follows: • Earned legalization: create legal channels for undocumented immigrants and their families already established in the U.S. so they come forward, obtain work and travel permits, and get on the path to permanent residence and citizenship; • Worker visas: develop “break-the-mold” worker visa programs to replace the current unauthorized flow of immigrants with a legal flow of needed workers, and do so in a way that enforces effective worker protections and provides a path to eventual citizenship for those who elect to become full members of our society; • Family visas: reduce backlogs for close family members waiting to be reunited and remove the perverse incentive for loved ones to enter the U.S. illegally in order to be together; • Smart enforcement: create realistic admissions limits so that our laws are more amenable to effective enforcement by designing and implementing multi-lateral “smart borders” strategies in which sending, transit, and receiving nations share intelligence and cooperate on screening and inspections. Such strategies will deter the dangerous, admit the desirable, better regulate the flow of people, and work to target bad actors such as criminal smugglers and unscrupulous employers. The principles released today by House Democratic leaders make an essential contribution to the long overdue drive to reform our immigration laws. As House legislation is being developed, an immediate step both the House and Senate should take is to enact pending bipartisan legislation: the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security (AgJobs) Act (S. 1645/H.R. 3142) and the DREAM /Student Adjustment Act (S. 1545/H.R.1684). If enacted these bipartisan measures would put Congress on the right path to full reform. The National Immigration Forum stands ready to work with all serious-minded parties from across the political spectrum to craft good ideas into real and workable reforms. # # # For additional statements and backgrounders regarding comprehensive immigration reform, please visit http://www.immigrationforum.org/CurrentIssues/CIR.htm. Information will be updated frequently, so please check this page to see what’s new.
|
|
|