Center for Human Rights & Consti Law's Response to Senate Immigration Bill

CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
256 S. OCCIDENTAL BOULEVARD
LOS ANGELES, CA 90057
Telephone: (213) 388-8693 Facsimile: (213) 386-9484

For Immediate Release May 27, 2006

Contact: Andrew Stevenson (213) 388-8693, Peter Schey (323) 251-3223

Statement by Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law President Peter
Schey: While Immigrants Rise Up, Congress Falls Down


As the principle legal organization that has represented hundreds of
thousands of immigrants in court cases seeking legalization under the Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), and having assisted the Congress when it
addressed IRCA for several years and again when it drafted the LIFE Act in
2000, and having worked extensively over the past several months with members
of the Senate and local coalitions and community-based organizations to
arrive at a comprehensive immigration reform package, we are deeply disappointed
with and must now oppose the Senate’s recently passed immigration bill unless
it is dramatically improved in a Conference Committee, the chances of which
are now exceptionally slim.

We are fully dedicated to and recognize the urgent need for comprehensive
immigration reform that fully protects U.S. and foreign-born workers within our
borders and addresses the nation’s legitimate national security concerns,
The bill adopted by the Senate on Thursday entirely fails to satisfy these
fundamental principles.

Nevertheless, with immigrants and others in favor of fair and rational
immigration reform now on the march throughout the country, we believe that the
drive for positive immigration reform is irreversible. Upcoming elections could
well change the complexion of the House of Representatives making real
immigration reform much more likely. We intend to work with local coalitions,
community-based and national organizations, and concerned members of Congress to
make sure that the goal of comprehensive immigration reform remains on the
legislative table until it is accomplished.

While some have applauded the architecture of the Senate immigration bill, a
careful review of the entire bill discloses one disastrous and irrational
provision after another. Taken as a whole, the bill will not come close to
legalize the majority of undocumented immigrants. In fact, it will undoubtedly
greatly increase the size of the undocumented population over time because of
its draconian enforcement measures that entirely block traditional avenues for
undocumented immigrants to legalize their status. If the bill becomes law,
within 20 years the undocumented population will reach about 20 million. The
bill is designed to drive undocumented immigrants deeper underground and
intensify their fugitive status, which will simply increase their exploitability
and whatever adverse impact they have on U.S. workers.

The three-tier legalization program is absurdly complex, unworkable, and
will likely not include even half the undocumented people already residing
permanently in the U.S. No more than 3 million immigrants (according to IRCA data)
will qualify for tier one legalization based upon more than five years of
continuous residence. Even these immigrants will only obtain “temporary”
status for eight years (given current visa backlogs of over 20 years), and will
wait about 16-18 years to become citizens and be able to vote for the first
time. Relatively few migrants will ever qualify for permanent residence under
the second tier “temporary worker” and third tier “guest worker” programs
because they will not have the necessary family relationships or qualifying
low-skilled jobs to win permanent resident status. For those who do succeed, they
must wait over 20 years before they can become citizens and participate in
the democratic process. This is an obstacle course to legalization and
citizenship, not a reasonable path.

The Senate’s interior enforcement provisions will criminalize all immigrants
who entered the country unlawfully, although making them guilty of
misdemeanors, rather than felonies as proposed by the House in the Sensenbrenner
bill.
Evading inspection is made a “continuous” crime that doesn’t end until the
immigrant is “discovered.” With other provisions and laws that encourage
local police to get involved in immigration enforcement, the criminalization of
those who enter without inspection will result in mass warrantless arrests
and detentions of Latino and other people of color in communities throughout
the country.

The Senate bill also criminalizes the use of false or altered documents to
obtain jobs, and makes any immigrant who worked using someone else’s name or
social security number ineligible for visas in the future. These provisions
will impact most undocumented workers. They will become criminals because they
used someone else’s name or documents to obtain employment in order to
survive and feed their families. They will be ineligible for visas in the future,
but are unlikely to ever leave the country. These provisions, like many other
iron-fist measures in the bill, will not force people to leave the country.
These measures will simply drive immigrants deeper underground, make them more
exploitable, and over the next several years bloat the size of the
undocumented population.

The Senate bill overturns recent Supreme Court decisions in order to permit
the “indefinite detention” of immigrants believed to be removable. It forces
immigrants to abandon their right to appeal erroneous deportation decisions
in order to preserve their right to “voluntary departure.” It makes it even
more difficult for legitimate asylum seekers to win protection from
deportation to countries where they face torture and imprisonment. It broadens the
definition of “aggravated felonies” to crimes that are neither felonies or
aggravated, and then provides for mandatory detention and deportation of all such
“felons” regardless of their present immigration status or length of
residence in the country. It will cause the deportation of thousands of immigrants
who have United States citizen children. It also strips the federal courts of
their historic role in reviewing and correcting unlawful policies enforced
by immigration officials in violation of laws enacted by Congress, as well as
erroneous decisions reached in individual cases. These court-stripping
measures will permit prejudice, ignorance of the laws, and even wide-scale
lawlessness to permeate the decisions and policies of immigration officials.

If the Senate bill included only its legalization provisions, as flawed and
short-sighted as they are, we would support such a bill as offering something
that was better than nothing. If the bill offered only the Dream Act to
legalize the status of certain immigrant students, we would fully endorse it. If
the bill included only provisions to increase the availability of visas and
reduce the current massive visa backlogs, we would unquestionably support it.
However, as presently constructed, the bill offers a hopelessly flawed
legalization as a velvet glove to some immigrants, and a sledge-hammer approach to
all other immigrants. This approach may grant something akin to indentured
servitude to a few million immigrants, but it will drive the majority, as well
as new entrants, far deeper underground, intensify their fugitive status,
increase their exploitability, and over time substantially expand the size of
the undocumented population. That’s a combination that we, as a human rights
organization, are bound to reject.