Looking Beyond "Deport or Legalize" for Immigration Solutions
Published May 21, 2009 @ 11:12PM PT
Too often when people think about immigration reform, they think about whether or not to legalize the millions of migrants living undocumented in the U.S., or whether a guest worker program will be implemented and what shape it might take. Or the focus might be on whether to scrap the current employment and family preference categories for a Canadian-style point system.
But all of these questions only deal with symptoms of deeper problems. The story of 12 million Mexicans hopping over border fences or swimming the Rio Grande is a story you'll often see on cable news. It's a simple story with simple solutions--you've got a homogenous group of lawbreakers, now deport them or legalize them, then build up the wall and stiffen penalties all around so it doesn't happen again.
But since that simple story fails to accurately assess the current problems, those simple solutions will surely fail to solve them.
The 12 million undocumented come from every country and represent every race. Many entered lawfully with valid visas, and were pushed out of status by unreasonable laws unreasonably interpreted. Some had lived here for decades as permanent residents before becoming "illegal," something that's hard to anticipate when harsh laws have retroactive effect and little flexibility. (This is the best summary I've seen of the perverse and cowardly bipartisan criminalization of immigration policy, much of which occurred on Clinton's watch in the 1990s.) Some did cross the border, but faced impossible choices at home due to forces that short-sighted U.S. policies helped unleash, and had no line to wait in to enter with authorization. Some sought refuge from persecution and instead found prison or a life in the shadows. Others were trafficked or brought as children.
After adding up all the exceptions to a norm that may exist only in the victimhood fantasies of Lou Dobbs, you may find that most of the 12 million don't fit easily into either the simple story or the simple solution. Successful immigration reform, one that won't have to be repeated in 20 years, will not fit the simple "deport or legalize" binary. A reasonable immigration system wasn't destroyed and replaced with a dysfunctional one overnight, it was gradually dismantled, piece by piece, in a coordinated, sustained effort that continues today. Reversing that process won't be easy, but little of value is gained without struggle.
These suggested reforms from AILA's Dagmar Butte represent a good starting point, and delve beneath the shallow cable news analysis and spineless poll-tested slogans that have so far dominated the field. I'll have more to add in the coming days and weeks--I hope you'll mull it over and make contributions of your own.
1. A method for families to be united in the United States without subjecting them to the lengthy or even permanent bars to re-entry that result purely from unlawful presence in the US. To do this, INA 212(a)(9)(B) and INA (a)(9)(C) must be eliminated.
2. A more sane and less arbitrary method for aliens in removal proceedings who have US citizen or LPR spouses, parents or children to remain in the US than the current Cancellation of Deportation process.
3. Restoration of due process protections for all aliens, even those who have committed serious crimes. After all, our constitution does not say every person is guaranteed due process of law “unless he or she is a criminal.” It says everyone gets due process.
4. More resources for Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals so that they have the time to actually decide and review cases in a meaningful manner. This will relieve pressure on the Courts of Appeals and restore integrity to the immigration review system.
5. Restoration of discretion for Immigration Judges particularly in cases involving minor criminal violations where the alien either has fully reformed or the factual circumstances are such that there are substantial mitigating circumstances.
6. Making Immigration Judges truly independent so that there are free to render truly impartial decisions and so that they are not viewed – rightly or wrongly – as simply rubberstamping the policies and decisions of DHS.
7. A restructuring of the current quota system that actually considers the migration patterns of today –both in terms of family and business immigration. For example, today’s quotas were created at a time when no one anticipated large numbers of brilliant engineers coming from India and China and a time when, frankly, we did not need them. Today we do and the current nine year backlog in processing petitions for Indian born engineers who hold Masters’ Degrees (many from the US) is outrageous and stupidly shortsighted.
8. A robust program both for high skilled workers and essential workers in agriculture and other industries that have difficulty attracting a qualified workforce.
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Comments (13)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
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David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.
So, let's get it done! How can we get it passed/put into legislation. That would solve ALL of my problems; the first suggestion alone.
Posted by Jessica Carmona on 05/21/2009 @ 11:38PM PT
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Letters to Congress and Senate?
Posted by Jaime E on 05/22/2009 @ 07:54AM PT
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Reading the list proposed by Dagmar Butte, encourages me to add my own. But before, I do that I want to say that I like to see very specific points made, and as far as due process, people still have to pay for their due process - there is a cost associated with due process. True, you can get a court-appointed lawyer, etc. which takes me to my first point.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 05/22/2009 @ 08:42AM PT
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Just curious? Has President Obama ever really defined what he means by getting in back of the line. I enjoyed that link in the article about getting in back of the line. I always wondered where the line ended since he suggested they would have to get behind it. I believed that rhetoric and it left me quite baffled?!
Maybe he was just saying that as a way to appease the public on the immigration issue and gain support? "Hopefully this is all it is" because...there it doesn't seem like there is a line to get in back of and I really wish he would give us a definition on what he is talking about?
In your article it leans towards reform that slowly comes in bits and piece's rather then one slam of a bill that seems to keep dyeing in the senate.
Will these various types of reform need to pass through the senate and depend on a 60 vote count or could the President give us the bits and pieces through executive actions?
I like this article and that would be great if you keep adding more info. on the possibility's and different ways reform might come.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 05/22/2009 @ 08:36PM PT
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Will these various types of reform need to pass through the senate and depend on a 60 vote count or could the President give us the bits and pieces through executive actions?
The President could take a stand against family separation and enact a moratorium on ICE raids until Congress passes a reform bill. He could end the widow penalty tomorrow. He could stop jailing asylum seekers to bring the U.S. into compliance with international human rights law. He could reform the Executive Office for Immigration Review to address the imbalances there--some judges grant 90% of asylum cases, some 10%. He could make immigration reform a priority. He could throw his weight behind the Dream Act. He could challenge DOMA so that the UAFA would be unnecessary. He could grant TPS to Haitians. He could advise ICE attorneys and AUSAs to work towards justice, not just easy wins (many of them do this already, to their credit).
There's a lot he can do in the absence of action from Congress. And Congress takes its cues from the president.
Posted by Dave Bennion on 05/23/2009 @ 07:28AM PT
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So the president has the ability to do alot on this issue with executive action and considering the danger people are faced with the horrible laws that are placed it is a disappointment that he has not moved enough on immigration yet.
He has promised us to move on this issue and he depends on the Hispanic vote.
On Latina Lista Marisa put up an article on a Sociologist from Princeton who has been studying Immigration for over 25 years?? (google to the article..I have ask my niece to show me how to post links) anyway there are lots of graphs that show how during the times we least needed border security and the flood of traffic coming through was at its all time low they actually beefed up border security. The article talks about the war on crime, the war on drugs, and then the war on terror *war on immigrants (terrorist's never came through Mexico and Mexico has a low Muslim population).
They article shows us that on a bi-partisan level the issue of immigration has been a wedge issue to get out the vote *lots of rhetoric is involved and that it is Washington that has slowly broken our immigration system more and more over the years just for the sake of political gains.
On Thursday I had sat in my first meeting with Pro-immigration activists. They were a small group that were working on detainee issues in Middlesex County, NJ. and one of the guys there felt that in order to make the President move there need to be a movement on the issue like the prior one and he felt without it the situation will continue to ride.
He talked about the Civil Rights movement and that the biggest obstacle that we have happens to be the language barrier of English/Spanish to reach out into the immigrant community's. They also did work with Bryan Lonegan years back but said he was working with Seaten Hall these days.
I tend to think he might have a point there. He said if you look back at history nothing like this moves forward without a strong movement to push an issue.
It can be done. Look at the grassroots/Obama movement. Groups can mobilize but we have to utilize our Hispanic leaders to reach out.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 05/23/2009 @ 03:48PM PT
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"...Obama has said absolutely nothing about altering or dismantling the massive multibillion dollar legal, bureaucratic and economic structures propped up in the name of "defending the homeland" from maids, gardeners and construction workers."
-- Roberto LovatoExcellent post! I like how you've framed the issue. It's true that we've been fed a simple story for a complex problem, yet it's amazing that so many people swallow these narratives without thinking. Because if they did, they would realize that the reason that these economic structures have burgeoned so quickly has little to do with immigration per se, and everything to do with corporate greed (the private profit-making prisons are a case in point). This is a moral issue. It should be no more acceptable to use human beings as fodder for the corporate-profit-making machine than it was for the Nazis to fashion lamp shades from human skin. Sadly, our economic system is largely based on exploitation and greed, so it is going to be very difficult to dismantle now that it is in place. You're right: reversing the process won't be easy, and it will require concerted activism. But I think it is time to ripe to start challenging these narratives in the debate over CIR, and press for fundamental changes. Leave the compromises to the politicians. As activists, we can move the debate forward by framing it in terms of human dignity and human rights. I agree with Mary that we will need a strong civil rights movement if we wish to make substantive changes. But we must begin the process of dismantling the "multibillion dollar legal, bureaucratic and economic structures" which oppress people...along with the narrative that "immigrant = criminal."
Posted by a d on 05/27/2009 @ 05:58PM PT
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Ditto for the security aparatus...drones, walls, border guards = huge profits for corporations. And it is deeply disturbing to hear a former constitutional scholar like Obama talking about "indefinite detention" as if it were normal to hold people incommunicado in this country. It shows just how far we've strayed from our values...not to mention hundreds of years of precedent going back to the Magna Carta...adieu habeas!
Posted by a d on 05/27/2009 @ 06:18PM PT
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Analisa, I posted in response to you down below Alex's post.
And it is deeply disturbing to hear a former constitutional scholar like Obama talking about "indefinite detention"
That is deeply disturbing! "indefinite detention" with private industry contracts. I did not expect this out of President Obama.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 05/27/2009 @ 06:37PM PT
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i agree with all the points the article makes...
Posted by Alex Shqipe on 05/27/2009 @ 06:02PM PT
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But we must begin the process of dismantling the "multibillion dollar legal, bureaucratic and economic structures" which oppress people...along with the narrative that "immigrant = criminal."
Good Point Analisa,
So part of going forward is to try to beat down the private industry prison business by insisting that our government cancel contracts with a profit making law enforcement system. Private industry law enforcement and detention is extremely dangerous to both the undocumented and citizens. If the private prison industry has rapid growth it will monopolize on our law enforcement system. Law enforcement should always remain a social program. We also need to go after the company's that exploit, recruit and traffic humans into our system and use fear tactic, and paid groups to orchestrate there business practices. We also need to target and expose each politician that excepts money from the main source of these groups so that they stand out when they do not support reform on our broken immigration system. Lastly we need to team up with various groups across the nation and orchestrate another movement like the prior one that includes Unions across America and demontrations demanding Civil Rights and Liberties.
Ok! Analisa how are we going to do this? :{
Is this issue going to explode shortly or in 2011 or is it already happening?
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 05/27/2009 @ 06:32PM PT
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"Law enforcement should always remain a social program. We also need to go after the company's that exploit, recruit and traffic humans into our system and use fear tactic, and paid groups to orchestrate there business practices. We also need to target and expose each politician that excepts money from the main source of these groups so that they stand out when they do not support reform on our broken immigration system. Lastly we need to team up with various groups across the nation and orchestrate another movement like the prior one that includes Unions across America and demontrations demanding Civil Rights and Liberties."
Good suggestions, Mary! I think it's already happening, but it's in its incipient stage right now. You can tell because people are mobilizing more and more, at least in the bay area. And I hear the whispers of a growing awareness...for instance, Hollywood is picking up on immigrant stories in a big way. But I think it's important to take our cues from the immigrants themselves, respecting their goals and desires and following their lead.
Posted by a d on 05/29/2009 @ 07:23PM PT
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...for instance, Hollywood is picking up on immigrant stories in a big way. But I think it's important to take our cues from
Speaking of this Analisa...I really can't wait for that Harrison Ford movie to come out on DVD because I didn't get a chance to see it when it was released in the movies. I would think it would come out soon because it has been a while now.
I alway thought Micheal Moore would be the perfect person to do a documentary on the broken immigration system. He always exposes an issue well. I thought the movie SICKO was great.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 05/29/2009 @ 11:52PM PT
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