Dear President Bush:

The undersigned organizations write this letter because of our concerns about measures your Administration recently has proposed, supported, and implemented that have harmed America's newcomers and are contrary to our country's tradition as a nation of immigrants. We believe it is critical for our government to protect us from those who would do us harm. It is equally important that we distinguish between the few who mean to harm us and the vast majority of newcomers who come to embrace this nation and the American Dream.

We applauded the positive statements you made after the terrorist attacks that were instrumental in binding our nation together. Since then, however, many of your Administration's initiatives have left immigrant communities nationwide feeling besieged and isolated, targeted innocent people who have come to this country to reunite with their families and fill our labor market needs, and caused many to question America's commitment to its core values. These initiatives have broadly targeted immigrants, refugees, and visitors and have provided few, if any, advantages in the battle against terrorism, when what is needed is to pinpoint and isolate a handful of persons who come to do us harm.

We are especially concerned about the following troubling measures:

• Your Administration advocates moving our immigration functions within the proposed Department of Homeland Security. Placing immigration within the new department sends the signal that all immigrants are potential terrorists, not people coming to this country to help build America. Moreover, you have advanced proposals that would bury all federal immigration functions within the largest proposed division of the new Homeland Security Department. Taking a deeply troubled Immigration Service and melding it into such a massive division with tens of thousands of employees is a recipe for failure for our immigration adjudications and enforcement functions and will not meet our security needs. You also have supported restructuring these functions within this new department in a way that would make problematic the effective, efficient, coordinated and fair provision of services and lead to differing interpretations and implementation of the law at our borders and interior. Moreover, you have proposed measures that would severely weaken the independence and impartiality of our immigration courts.
• Over 1,200 immigrants were detained after September 11, with some still in detention. The vast majority of these people have not been charged with criminal or terrorism-related activities. Your administration is keeping the identities of these people secret, and is putting them through secret immigration proceedings.
• As many as seven million hardworking, taxpaying workers are threatened with losing their jobs as the result of initiatives of the Social Security Administration (SSA). The SSA's efforts appear to run counter to the goal you articulated with Mexican President Vicente Fox to match willing workers and employers.
• The Department of Justice recently announced that it would begin enforcing a change of address notification requirement, with deportation a possible penalty. While at first blush such a requirement seems both reasonable and necessary, the punishment does not fit the violation. It makes no sense to make enforcement of this obscure law a priority given that the Immigration and Naturalization Service is unable to handle the huge volume of forms or record the information it receives.
• The Department of Justice is requiring the fingerprinting, photographing and registering of nationals of certain countries. This measure offers little protection against terrorism while subjecting individuals to a lengthy and complicated procedure. This measure will subject innocent people to arrest and deportation for failure to report on time to authorities. It also will waste precious resources because it would be applied to people who already have been screened and determined to be admissible to the U.S.
• Without justification or explanation, the Department of Justice appears to have changed a long-standing legal opinion so that state and local law enforcement now have "inherent authority" to enforce civil and criminal violations of immigration law. Among other consequences, this change will make it more difficult for police to build trust in immigrant communities and will discourage immigrants from coming forward with information that might make us safer.
• Your Administration has dramatically curtailed the admission of refugees into this country, despite the fact that refugees are among the most carefully screened people admitted into our country.
• Many consular and INS officials appear to be finding excuses to deny as many applications as they can. These officials are using flimsy reasons to deny applications to qualified individuals in a wide range of areas, including citizenship, family unification, international studies and employment.

As we move forward, we must do so as a nation united. Sadly, the policies mentioned above have split us apart, just as we need to pull together. These policies are engendering an atmosphere of fear within immigrant communities, and an atmosphere of distrust and hostility toward those born abroad. Rather than isolating terrorists, these policies are isolating newcomers.

We call on you, President Bush, to change these policies so that, as a nation of immigrants, we will protect and enhance our values, freedoms, and traditions while making our country more secure.