Reform Immigration for America
This week, all around the nation, the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign is being launched. The goal is to fix our broken immigration system. The campaign brings together labor, faith, civil rights, pro-immigrant, business and law enforcement communities in an unprecedented alliance to win the legislative battle expected to begin later this year. As I write, over 800 allies, advocates and activists are converging on Washington, DC for three days of lobby visits, strategy sessions and the national town hall on immigration reform.
Though vast majorities of Americans agree that we need comprehensive immigration reform it's worth taking a moment to reflect on some of the reasons why this is such an urgent task. The economic urgency has only become greater during this deep and painful recession. Immigration reform is right not only from a moral, human rights perspective, but also from an economic perspective. Undocumented workers, who contribute to our economy, are unable to advocate for fair wages or humane working conditions. Without the protection that legal status affords these workers, employers can engage in a race to the bottom in wages and can exploit this ever-present underclass of labor. That hurts all American workers, whose wages and conditions would be raised across the board with the level playing field under comprehensive reform.
After 8 years of enforcement-only policies and divisive scare tactics under the Bush administration, an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country live in a state of perpetual fear. Our policies have created an entire sub-class of people who live and work in the shadows.
And while there are extremists who love to shout "illegal is illegal", the truth that most Americans don't understand is that our system is so broken that there is virtually no legal way for immigrants to come to our country -- there is no line to stand in. Many of the currently undocumented immigrants in this country have come in legally, then were bogged down in the slow, bureaucratic labyrinth of backlogs, visas and status adjustments. Victimized by the system, their only hope is a comprehensive overhaul of the broken laws that violate their civil and human rights.
Take Jason Ng for example.
Jason arrived in the United States in 1992, immigrating with his family with hopes of a better life. Nearly 15 years later, he found himself married to a US citizen, raising two US-born children and... facing an indefinite prison sentence. During his last interview for a green card, Jason was informed he had overstayed a visa years before and was promptly arrested and thrown into an immigrant detention center. While in detention, he began experiencing excruciating pain and was largely ignored by prison staff. On August 12, 2008, Jason died while in detention, his body eaten away by cancer.
Jason's story may be extreme, but it highlights one reason why this country so urgently needs comprehensive immigration reform. No budget restructuring or state-level legislation would have saved Jason's life. Only a complete overhaul of the system, from a legal pathway to citizenship to decriminalizing what should be a civil violation, would have given him a fighting chance.
Comprehensive reform would also help keep families together. Recently, while reading about the one year anniversary of the immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, I saw a video of a child interviewed after his parents were arrested.
Fighting back tears, he said: "We're not criminals, my Mom and Dad came here so I could get an education... Now I want to be a lawyer, so I can help people like us. Now I want to help people who have the same fate as me. Because now I know how it feels."
Our country is only as strong as our families and our communities. We cannot continue to separate children from their parents and families from their loved ones. Just ask the folks in Postville.
President Obama has committed himself to immigration reform and now is the time that we should hold him, members of congress and ourselves accountable for getting this critical legislation done this fall.
Why is this different than the push for immigration reform in previous years? Not only has this campaign been built from the bottom up -- over 44 local launches of the campaign took place across the country on Monday -- but it is a uniquely diverse and strong collection of folks working for a cause that a majority of the American public supports. Everyone from Rahm Emanuel to Alan Greenspan to the Police Foundation have come out in support of comprehensive immigration reform. The labor movement and the immigrant rights movement are united. Opposition to reform is increasingly the lonely province of a small but vocal and powerful group of extremists whose messages becomes more and more hateful by the day.
Now is the time. This is the year. Reform Immigration for America. For families. For the Economy. For workers. If you want to join the fight, text "JUSTICE" to 69866. You will receive action alerts and RI4A campaign updates in the fight for reform.
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, if President Obama does not keep his promise of Immigration Reform this year, he either lied knowingly in the campaign or he is incompetent. I say incompetent because he knew back then of all the problems he would face: bad economy, healthcare…besides immigration, and yet, he promised he would make immigration a priority. Since then, nothing unpredictable happened so that his plan would be veered off course. If a disaster that nobody could predict happened, I would understand how this new pressing matter could interfere with his promises, but otherwise, all the other problems were well known, so I suppose he had some sort of idea of what was to happen, at least if he were competent he would.
We don't need to reform the immigration system. We need to enforce the immigration laws we already have.
There are legal immigrants who have respect for our laws and play by the rules and are welcome. There are illegal immigrants who have no respect for our laws and do not play by the rules and are not welcome.
We have immigration laws, there are quotas for a reason. I don't see why the laws we have aren't obeyed and enforced.
IMMIGRATION ISSUE IS THE BEST ONE TO SEE HOW PRAGMATISM AND EMPATHY REALLY WORK.
The logic is obvious that millions of people and thousands of employers are in the twilight of the law and there is a need to make laws that are improved and enforceable. With millions of Americans unemployed and millions working outside the legal system, it is difficult to expect that Congress can quickly debate and pass any new laws, however big the demand. This means that the true meaning of PRAGMATISM will be seen: proposed reforms need to be brought out and explained and everyone figure out how long it will take. With obviously needed reforms the biggest factor becomes time. HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CHANGE? The tragic fact is that high unemployment does not allow fast progress. The basic American psyche is not likely to take mercy on undocumented workers when so many of them are sweating blood themselves. A very tragic situation, everybody is suffering.
EMPATHY, the other concept now circulating to figure out how people think politically, is just being understood. Those the least open to reform, think empathy means sympathy, instead of its dictionary definition, to be able to understand what others feel. This gives conservatives a disadvantage because they can't figure as easily what others think. But it also gets more sensitive persons to understand how to be pragmatic and not expect democratic reforms as fast as they should logically be made.
Why do you ascribe a different set of feelings to Conservatives? Could it be that if someone comes to a different conclusion it is easier to think of them as possessing a different biological make-up? What about the possibility it might have something to do with the attainment of a different level of maturity, knowledge, or different past experiences?
Webster's definition of Xenophobia is a fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. Should not everyone respect that which is different and become educated in those differences lest they become xenophobic?
Those who believe in respecting others and having empathy with them know that the old saying about morality being what you do when no one is looking. Yes laws are imperfect and there will always be opportunities to exploit loopholes or the lack of enforcement. But if people who live in an area have reasonable expectations woven into their laws is it not totally disrespectful to them to break those laws when no one is looking? Should the Conquistadores have had more respect for the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca? Should people like Genghis Khan or Adolph Hitler taken into account the desires of the people of the lands they tried to subjugate? Illegal Immigration completely lacks empathy because it disregards the desires of the majority of the people who choose to have orderly immigration. Empathy is a two way street.
Then lets use the immigration policies of the country from which the illegals came from ..Oh thats right Mexico's and Latin America's and China and the Mid East would rival the difficulty of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity getting an interview with MSNBC
You're confusing individuals with governments.
Some unemployed Mexican man looking for work in the US as a landscaper is not responsible for Mexican immigration laws.
No he is not.
Mr. Bhargava,
Your attempt to mitigate law breaking by the "undocumented" disingenuously submits facts that are far from the truth. You claim that the the "vast majority" of Americans want immigration reform when, in fact, the consensus indicates that what they want is obedience to, and enforcement of, existing immigration laws. You claim the presence of 12 million illegal entrants when the current estimates are somewhat over 20 million (the vast majority from Mexico). Nowhere in your screed do you address the issue of accountability for these lawbreakers. Since when is enforcing and obeying the law of the land a point of view. Until the porous nature of our borders is addressed and secured, any new laws would be useless. There is nothing demonstrated by the behavior of these illegal immigrants to indicate that adherence to new laws will be accepted with anything but the distain and contempt they show for the present ones.
I respectfully submit that as proud Mexican citizens it is incumbent on them to work collectively and diligently in their own country to build a nation which represents and addresses the needs of its citizens.
If the Mexicans spent the same amount of time organizing in mass, demonstrating their national pride and demanding their "rights" in their own country, as they do in the one they illegally entered, perhaps more could be accomplished. If the 'proud' Mexican citizens don't take this problem into their own hands and work towards resolution, who is suppose to?
It all sounds very reasonable, except for one thing: which country would YOU rather live in?
Because if you say USA, you're thinking like an immigrant. They would say USA, too.
And this is rebuttal for disregarding the laws of a land they have invaded?
These law breakers are not fleeing a war torn region, nor are they being persecuted for their religious or political beliefs, nor are they escaping from under the iron hand of a despotic dictatorship. They are looking across the fence at their neighbors yard, seeing the grass is greener on the other side, and in lieu of planting their own lawn, decide to camp out in ours. The economic impact of these law breakers has overwhelmed our social services system (forcing the closing emergency rooms), filled our prisons, suppressed wages and dumbed-down the education of our children. All this while flying Mexican flags in downtown Los Angeles demanding their "rights".
I think the US should deport all people who are here illegally, prosecute and jail employers who hire illegals, and stop visas for foreigners who do jobs that Americans can do. I am a programmer, but my wages are depressed because large business has bribed congress into allowing foreign programmer to come in as underpaid guest workers. Huge numbers of American's study computer programming in schools, but can't get jobs, or get lower paid jobs than they should be.
All ILLEGAL ALIENS need to be deported. Do that and immigration reform would work. We spend BILLIONS to provide health care and an education to people who don't belong here. We needs to spend this money on our own citizens.
I'm no fan of GW Bush, but I got to give one thing to the man; his proposal for an expedited guest worker program. That would've prevented many immigrants to become illegal in the first place.
BTW, remember that people can be made illegal even if they do not want that. Re read what happened to Jason Ng. Was his indefinite detention even necessary?
Common sense ought to prevail before screaming illegal and all that.
I'm not screaming just putting stress where it is needed- but when someone comes to a country ILLEGALLY then they are ILLEGAL. We are spending way too much money on people who shouldn't be here.
They don't need to be deported, the Gov't just needs to hammer employers very hard when they hire illegals, and soon enough most of these illegals will walk back to Mexico ( as I recall that is the same way most of them got here) and take their, ".....civi
I once persented a method that would allow enforcement of immigration laws.
Simply reward anyone reporting the employment of an illegal alien with a $25,000 payment. And the employer would pay the reward. And even the illegal alien could report his/her employer for the reward. The employer would also be responsible for 1st class transportation of the illegal and family back to their country of origin.
First time an illegal got that reward and free trip home, every single employer of illegals would fire them.
Evidence indicates Illegal Immigrants have had a negative impact on the GDP. Here is why:
Pew Center studies by J. Passel show Illegal Immigrants compete directly with Americans for jobs. Currently we have 19 million Americans looking for work and 7 million working Illegal Immigrants. The best we have done since 2000 was still 12 million Americans looking for work versus 7 million working Illegal Immigrants.
Per U.S. Government Statistics unemployment and welfare paid to out of work Americans because of working Illegal Immigrants is estimated at $100 billion per year. The average U.S. Savings Rate is effectively zero so had these funds remained in wage earner hands all would have been spent and thus no GDP impact.
Labor Markets most affected by Illegal Immigration have seen an average 8% decline in wages costing about $58 billion in reduced GDP.
Illegal Immigrants send remittances estimated at $9 billion out of the USA. This brings the Illegal Immigrant driven decline in GDP to about $67 billion.
The United States is a net food exporter so no net impact on GDP here. But loosing Illegal Immigration means less house building. If 12 million Illegal Immigrants never come to the USA, GDP data says this GDP loss averages $15 to $30 billion.
So we actually experience a net GDP loss of $37 to $52 billion (0.5%) thanks to Illegal Immigration. Meanwhile the terrible fourth quarter of 2008 had a 0.8% GDP drop.
"Americans don't understand is that our system is so broken that there is virtually no legal way for immigrants to come to our country -- there is no line to stand in."
Hogwash. We have the MOST GENEROUS immigration system in the history of the world. We let in a million immigrants LEGALLY every year. Not every person who wants to come here should have the right to do so. If we permitted such as asinine policy, we'd have a billion people here in a generation. The fact that we don't allow unlimited amounts of people from any one country and that we don't allow unlimited numbers of uneducated immigrants into the country are GOOD things. Importing countless numbers of poor people is a formula for disaster. We're already stretched for resources. We have social systems that we can't afford. We're not the world's dumping ground. We need to focus on AMERICANS who need our help.
And here's something folks like you don't consider. The real estate boom drew in millions of illegal immigrants in the last 15 years. Those jobs paid better than ag jobs and were plentiful. However, MOST OF THOSE JOBS ARE GONE. With our current housing situation, we are WAY overbuilt. It could take decades before we work through the existing inventory of homes. If we give an amnesty now, we are putting immigrants in direct competition with the most destitute Americans for the few remaining low-skill jobs that will be available.
"We have the MOST GENEROUS immigration system in the history of the world. We let in a million immigrants LEGALLY every year."
Now THAT his pure hogwash! One million over a total population of 370 millions. Do not make us laugh. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, just to name these countries are far more generous on a pre rata basis than the US.
Furthermore, it shows that you never went through the immigration system here. I have, and let me tell you it is a maze of conflicting rules, a patchwork of jurisdictions that lead to ridiculous and insane situations. My wife never had a chance to say farewell to her dying father while waiting for her green card, because she would have been prevented to re-enter the country!! By the time we appealed for humanitarian reasons (and INS made sure the process was complex and slow thank you very much!) it was TOO LATE!
Was that the generosity you were talking about earlier??
How artfully you twist reality. The USA lets in as many LEGAL Immigrants as the rest of the countries of the world combined. So that means one million to 300 million in the USA versus one million to 5.7 billion for the rest of the world. And you throw up Australia, Canada, and New Zealand as examples of what the USA should be doing? Australia and New Zealand are underpopulated compared to the USA because for many years they severly limited immigration by requiring the majority of their immigrants come from Great Britian. For a while Australia actually lost population. And there were many years when you could only become a citizen of New Zealand by marriage or if THEY invited YOU. And Canada is still very underpopulated compared to the USA.
If you calculate out the capability of the farm lands in each nation to support population the great expanses of the USA that are desert or mountain land limit the food production carrying capacity of the USA to 557 million people. We are at over 300 million now and the rest of the food we produce feeds 227 million people elsewhere in the world. So what do we do when our population reaches 558 million? Whe do we let starve? Our kids? Those who live overseas that we used to feed?
First, the US population isn't 370 million. We just passed 300 million a year or two ago.
And we do have the most generous legal immigration system. We let in more legal immigrants than any country by far. That's a fact.
Is it bureaucratic? Sure. Should it be streamlined for LEGAL immigrants? Absolutely. Should it be easy? No. We shouldn't hand out citizenship like it's a party favor. My problem isn't with legal immigrants, though. I admire folks who go through the legal system. My problem is ILLEGAL immigrants. I'm talking about those who bumrush the border or who knowingly overstay their visas. Just because they want to come here doesn't mean they should be able to. Our population is now on target to reach 450 million by 2050. That's a 50% growth rate in the next 41 years. Our resources (natural, financial, etc.) are already stretched to the max. We have nearly 10% unemployment. The situation we have now with illegal immigrants is untenable.
Agree that is hogwash. I, myself, am an immigrant and I married a soldier. I left a country with a fulltime job, paying a great salary, 6 weeks of vacation each year, vacation bonus and Christmas
Bonus, which usually amounted to 15 1/2 month salaries and full healthcare and I was shocked
when I arrived here having always had the impression that America was a forward country.
Here 45 years later we have not progressed to the European Standards. Would I do it in my next
life, I hope I remember LOL.
Absolutely in agreement. Migration is the human face of globalization. We can't have globalized economies and not expect migration. Immigration is a reality that is not going away and justice demands that we fix our immigration system so that:
Comprehensive immigration reform should:
• provide a path to legalization for the undocumented;
• provide a path to legal work for future immigrants (by increasing the number of employment visas available);
• expedite family reunification (by increasing the number of family-based visas available);
• restoring due process rights (important for the protection of refugees and others);
• focus on the development of migration sending countries.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION helps NO ONE!
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