Advocacy Update
February 2005

LIRS Sets Challenging Priorities for 2005 and 2006
By Matt Wilch and Lynette Engelhardt Stott, Directors, LIRS Policy and Advocacy Department

Beginning with this issue, the column formerly titled “Washington Update” will now be “Advocacy Update.” This change will allow us to keep you better informed of the breadth of LIRS’s efforts, including policy, grassroots and legislative advocacy.

This is a year of advocacy challenges and opportunities. LIRS and other coalition partners will be challenged to stand up for vulnerable refugees and immigrants. Government support to meet their needs will be scarce. Also, asylum protection will be under assault with restrictive asylum legislation expected early in the session.

On the other hand policymakers will also have opportunities to provide greater protection for unaccompanied children. With persistent advocacy in 2004 by grassroots advocates associated with LIRS and coalition partners, the Senate passed the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act, and it was gaining momentum in the House. We are hopeful it will become law this year. We also are hopeful that the Department of State (DOS) will improve and increase resettlement processing of unaccompanied refugee children in camps, enabling DOS to meet its own goal to “target strategies to improve the protection of unaccompanied [refugee] minors.”

Legislators are likely to debate immigration reform. The president supports a new temporary worker program. LIRS will advocate for just and comprehensive immigration reform to assure family unity, a path to permanent status, and fair labor rights and human rights for separated immigrant families. Also, there is a strong opportunity to legislate removal of the annual cap limiting the number of asylees who can adjust to legal permanent residency.
Taking into account the challenges and opportunities listed above, LIRS has committed itself to the following priorities for the next two years in pursuit of our newly formulated 10-year goals. (See “From the President’s Desk” on page 1.)

• Increasing levels of appropriations and resettlement to address the needs of refugees, migrants—especially those in detention—and the communities in which they will integrate
• Protecting and preserving the right to asylum
• Protecting refugee and immigrant children
• Promoting just and comprehensive immigration reform
• Combating trafficking

These five priorities all relate to achieving the 10-year goals. They require important partnerships, especially with our colleague agencies, and necessitate an ambitious plan of action. LIRS will need grassroots support to make progress on these goals. On the LIRS website—www.lirs.org—and in FYI we will continue to inform you of opportunities to help. We look forward to your partnering with us in advocacy on these issues in 2005!

Read past Advocacy/Washington Updates.