The Clash of Mobilizations

It’s a historic achievement and a hugely important step in the process of remaking our immigration laws in a way that brings order and fairness to a long-broken system. But it’s not the only step and it didn’t come without a significant cost. If we’re going to cross the finish line, the communities that care about immigrants will have to work harder. We have much to do to ensure that the bill that gets signed into law treats our communities with the respect we deserve.

The bill that just passed the Senate was the subject of a vigorous, difficult debate between a bipartisan group of senators who support comprehensive reform, including legalization, and a smaller group of senators who believe that the only appropriate policy is to institute stronger enforcement and to make the lives of immigrants more difficult. The latter was the approach the House of Representatives took when it passed the Sensenbrenner bill last December, a proposal so harsh that millions of immigrants and their supporters have launched unprecedented mobilizations against it.

Even though the Senate ultimately chose a different path from the House, the Senate bill has a number of draconian enforcement measures that look a lot like the House bill. There are important erosions of immigrant rights in the Senate bill, as well as policies that make it harder for government agencies to communicate with people who don’t speak English. In short, there’s still much to be done to make sure this debate produces a final bill that will be both effective and fair.

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