|
On Senate Immigration Legislation-Statement of Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, Jr., President of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Baltimore, June 2, 2006 - Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) commends President Bush and the Senate for fundamentally shifting the nature of the immigration debate toward a comprehensive approach to immigration reform. The resulting Senate bill is more consistent with the critical principles of uniting families, protecting human rights and worker rights, bringing undocumented people out of the shadows and providing a path to permanence for newcomers.
In contrast to the enforcement-only House bill passed in December, the recently passed Senate bill would make strides in improving America’s approach to welcoming and protecting hardworking immigrants and their families. It would reduce backlogs for family immigration visas, make more family visas available, enable more willing workers to maintain their family unity and provide visas for vulnerable widows and orphans.
The Senate bill’s legalization program would offer the opportunity for many immigrants to come out of the shadows and obtain authorization to live in this country. It would also provide a path to permanence for individuals, albeit an arduous path of eleven years in some cases. It establishes protections for workers from potentially exploitative employment practices by tying temporary worker visas to continued employment instead of to a particular employer or job. For certain immigrants, this bill would uphold the right of review by a federal court by delaying immediate deportation until a person has his or her day in court.
Despite marked progress toward comprehensive reform, the Senate bill offers numerous provisions that contradict LIRS’s core principles. We maintain serious concerns over measures that perpetuate fundamental unfairness in America’s immigration system, pose harm to refugees, asylum seekers and immigrant families and create disincentives for immigrants to participate in the program.
LIRS will continue to advocate for the creation of simpler criteria for earned legalization, instead of the proposed three tier approach that offers eligibility and assigns rights based upon the amount of time an undocumented immigrant has been living in the United States.
We oppose several provisions of the bill that expand the immigration detention system and erode the basic rights afforded to immigrants including: those that allow for the indefinite detention of individuals who cannot be deported to their home countries, those that expedite removal proceedings or automatically imprison immigrants without providing them access to attorneys or judges, those that increase detention capacity by an
additional 20,000 beds to house immigrants awaiting their day in court and those that diminish the checks and balances of judicial review over immigration decisions.
This bill’s proposed legalization program is complex. This complexity combined with overzealous enforcement efforts and diminished human and legal rights can potentially create a climate of fear. In such a climate, people distrust the system and are too afraid to come forward.
We know from decades of experience working with asylum seekers that expansion of the immigration detention system would be particularly harmful. When those fleeing from persecution in their home countries are held in custody, they often suffer retraumatization as a result of this detention.
Expansion of the immigration detention program would be a travesty when there are humane, fiscally responsible and proven alternatives to imprisonment that support President Bush’s assertion that the vast majority of immigrants are “decent people who work hard, support their families, practice their faith and lead responsible lives.”
The challenge ahead for Congress is to reshape the proposed legislation to reflect our nation’s commitment to human rights and family values, while balancing our economic needs. We urge our lawmakers to reconsider fundamental fairness as they review current enforcement proposals and ask them to ensure that vital checks and balances are in place over our executive branch.
We hope that our elected officials work together to create an immigration system that will eradicate the current climate of fear and confusion and create incentives for immigrants to come out of the shadows. Most importantly, we pray for one that recognizes and preserves the human rights that spring from our God-given dignity.
About Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Since 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has worked with service, advocacy and educational partners nationwide to bring new hope and new life to America’s newcomers. LIRS resettles refugees, protects unaccompanied refugee and migrant children, including victims of trafficking, advocates for fair and just treatment of asylum seekers, seeks alternatives to detention for those who are incarcerated during their immigration proceedings and stands for unity for families fractured by unfair laws.
LIRS is a cooperative agency of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. With initiative and stewardship, LIRS seeks creative solutions for uprooted people regardless of race, ethnicity or religious beliefs.
# # #
Archived News Releases
|
