Fw: Potholes in the Road to Immigration Reform - FCNL

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Guthrie" <kathyguthrie@fcnl.org>
To: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@optonline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 5:09 PM
Subject: Potholes in the Road to Immigration Reform - FCNL

The Senate is now debating immigration reform-- reviewing legislation
to address the reality that an estimated 12 million people are now
living in this country without valid immigration documents. FCNL has
expressed support for the 271-page bill proposed by Sen. Arlen Specter
(PA) and approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee as a moderate
alternative to a more punitive "enforcement only" bill
offered initially by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (TN). The
Specter bill offers the best possibility for real immigration reform in
this congressional session.

--The Specter bill includes elements that we at FCNL believe are
essential to comprehensive immigration reform:

--It regularizes the guest worker program, provides some security
against abuse of these workers, and creates a path to citizenship for
people who come to work here.

It provides a reasonable solution to the fact that millions of
immigrants are already living and working in the United States without
proper documentation. While this is not an amnesty program, it allows
people who have lived in this country for many years, paid taxes, and
become essential to the U.S. economy a path to citizenship over a
period of time. At the end of a waiting period, people who violated
civil immigration laws would have to pay a $2000 fine, repay any back
taxes that they owe, clear background checks, and learn English and
civics before being eligible for citizenship.

This legislation is as important for what it does not contain as for
what it contains. For example, current law treats illegal entry into
the country as a "civil violation" -- a minor infraction of
the law that does not necessarily justify immediate arrest and
detention. The House-passed bill, H.R. 4437, treated these violations
as serious crimes - felonies. The Specter bill does not make that
change. It also does not criminalize individuals and groups who offer
humanitarian assistance to people without appropriate documentation, as
the House bill would do.

But this bill is a compromise, so it contains some items that FCNL does
not favor, and a few provisions that ought to be removed before final
passage. As the amendment process continues, FCNL will look for and
support amendments to address these issues:

--Treating immigrants like criminals. The Specter bill rejects the idea
(which appears in the House bill, H.R.4437) that violations of
immigration laws should be treated as felonies. But the Senate version
retains a substantial apparatus to enforce immigration laws as if they
were criminal laws. For instance *The bill would load the
National Crime Information Center a criminal database with information
about millions of civil immigration law violators. (Section 231)
*The bill would, in effect, require local law enforcement
agencies to arrest and detain people who have not committed a crime
beyond violating immigration laws. (Section 231) Local law enforcement
agencies argue this legislation would make it more difficult to get
cooperation from their communities to protect public safety.
*The bill requires that anyone (other than Mexican nationals)
caught trying to enter the U.S. without appropriate documentation shall
be detained until removed from the country, or a final decision
regarding their admission is reached. (Section 131)
*The bill authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to
"construct or acquire" 20 detention facilities, with capacity
for 10,000 individuals who might be detained pending removal. As part
of this process, the head of the Department of Homeland Security
announced recently that the U.S. plans to open "family-focused
detention" facilities in May 2006. Closed military base facilities
are to be considered for these detention facilities.

--Invading everyone's privacy. New employees are already required to
establish their right to work in the U.S. by presenting valid
identification papers such as a birth certificate, an original Social
Security card, and a license or similar document. The Specter bill
takes this requirement a step further. It authorizes the creation of a
national database that includes all of the information necessary to
verify a potential employee's eligibility for employment in the U.S. It
would require employers to seek pre-approval of all potential employees
through this database. If the electronic system is unable to confirm
eligibility, the employer is required to dismiss the person and to
cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security by sharing all
available information on that person. Employers would face heavy fines
for non-compliance.

This database comes with a lot of baggage, including the massive
workload involved in maintaining such a vast database and verifying
names that cannot be found on the first attempt, the potential for both
error and abuse, and the high likelihood of bureaucratic problems even
for people who meet all legal requirements for employment. Sen. Kennedy
(MA) has offered an amendment (SA 3219) to address some of the privacy
concerns in this section.

We remain optimistic that Congress will retain the fairest elements of
the Specter bill, and will reject some of its most disturbing
provisions. As you communicate with your senators about this bill,
encourage them to initiate or support amendments that will fill in some
of the pot-holes in the bill and create a workable system for welcoming
and integrating immigrants into the U.S.

_______________________________________

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We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
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