It’s Not Just About Legalization, Due Process Is Also at Stake

NEW YORK -- Last spring’s mass mobilizations for real immigration reform was a brilliant spark in the immigrant rights movement. For the millions of participants around the country, the marches and rallies told Congress that it had a responsibility to look beyond punitive enforcement and to consider comprehensive reform.

The rallying cries, including, "We Are America," "Keep Our Families Together," "Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote," and "Liberty and Justice for All," echoed through the marches and the media. We made clear that our principles included legalization for immigrants here today and those coming in the future, protections for immigrant and U.S.-born workers, family reunification and an end to cruel deportations, and preserving civil rights and civil liberties for all.

By Memorial Day, however, the House and the Senate ended up with two bills that, while different in some important respects (the Senate bill provides a limited legalization program), actually share many of the same draconian enforcement provisions that would devastate the lives of millions of immigrants and Americans in this country.

On September 7th, as Congress returns from its August recess, thousands of immigrant rights supporters from across the East Coast will converge on Washington, D.C. to remind Congress of our active engagement in this debate and to demand reforms that respect and reflect our nation’s core principles. It is important to reiterate the values of our nation to counteract the summer of choreographed "field hearings" by House leaders, which did nothing but perpetuate the inaccurate, simplistic and xenophobic image of immigrants as threats to our security.

At times, the public perception has been that this debate is about legalization and only impacts the lives of undocumented immigrants. If that were the case, we would feel confident knowing that, according to public polling, the overwhelming majority of the American public supports some kind of legalization for the estimated 11-12 million immigrants in the U.S. without immigration status.

The reality, though, is that this debate goes much deeper than legalization; it forces us to question the extent to which we recognize that immigrants, as human beings, are entitled to the same fundamental rights and basic fairness as any other individual in this country.

After all the Senate bill proposes, among other things, to increase the jailing of immigrants, including children, with up to 20,000 more detention bed spaces; authorize local police to act as immigration agents and thereby destroy trust and safety in our communities; and jail green-card holders who make the clerical error of not notifying the Department of Homeland Security within ten days of a change of address. No, this debate is about much more than legalization for undocumented immigrants.

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