Immigration Update

March 11, 2008

While many thought that since this an election year, the issue of immigration would be silent in the halls of Congress, recent months have proved otherwise. A great deal has happened in just a short week and we need your voice to enter into the debate that is growing both in the House and Senate now!

The SAVE Act’s (H.R. 4088) flawed enforcement-only policy is still gaining co-sponsors (now up to 141 co-sponsors ). They are now planning to introduce a discharge petition, which would allow the bill to undemocratically bypass the committee process and force a vote on the floor if 218 signatures are gathered.

While discharge petitions rarely have a chance of succeeding, a rare alliance of groups could make it a reality.

Also, on Wednesday, March 5, 12 senators introduced 15 enforcement-only bills and amendments that ranged from further militarizing the border and building a 700-mile fence to making English the national language. Below is a short summary of the sponsors and pieces introduced:

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL):

• A bill to increase the criminal penalties for illegally reentering the United States and for other purposes (S. 2709)
• A bill to authorize the Department of Homeland Security to use an employer's failure to timely resolve discrepancies with the Social Security Administration after receiving a "no match" notice as evidence that the employer violated section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act (S. 2710)
• A bill to improve the enforcement of laws prohibiting the employment of unauthorized aliens and for other purposes (S. 2711)

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC):

• A bill to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to complete at least 700 miles of reinforced fencing along the Southwest border by December 31, 2010, and for other purposes (S. 2712)

Senator David Vitter (R-LA):

• A bill to prohibit appropriated funds from being used in contravention of section 642(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (S. 2713)
• A bill to close the loophole that allowed the 9/11 hijackers to obtain credit cards from United States banks that financed their terrorists activities, to ensure that illegal immigrants cannot obtain credit cards to evade United States immigration laws, and for other purposes (S. 2714)

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK):

• A bill to amend title 4, United States Code, to declare English as the national language of the Government of the United States, and for other purposes (S. 2715)

Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM):

• A bill to authorize the National Guard to provide support for the border control activities of the United States Customs and Border Protection of the Departments of Homeland Security, and for other purposes (S. 2716)

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA):

• A bill to provide for enhanced Federal enforcement of, and State and local assistance in the enforcement of, the immigration laws of the United States, and for other purposes (S. 2717)

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY):

• A bill to withhold 10 percent of the Federal funding apportioned for highway construction and maintenance from States that issue driver's licenses to individuals without verifying the legal status of such individuals (S. 2718)

Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC):

• A bill to provide that Executive Order 13166 ["Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency"] shall have no force or effect, and to prohibit the use of funds for certain purposes (S. 2719)
• A bill to prohibit aliens who are repeat drunk drivers from obtaining legal status or immigration benefits (S. 2722)

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA):

• A bill to withhold Federal financial assistance from each country that denies or unreasonably delays the acceptance of nationals of such country who have been ordered removed from the United States and to prohibit the issuance of visas to nationals of such country (S. 2720)

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

• A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prescribe the binding oath or affirmation of renunciation and allegiance required to be naturalized as a citizen of the United States, to encourage and support the efforts of prospective citizens of the United States to become citizens, and for other purposes (S. 2721)

Not all these measures are inherently flawed. Yet when done in a piecemeal and fragmented fashion, they are simply posturing and will have no lasting impact on the issue. Furthermore, many such reactionary policies fail to accomplish what they originally set out to do and can have a reverse effect, making our communities and country as a whole less safe and prosperous. Here are some examples of how the SAVE Act and these senate bills fail.

• When harsh, enforcement-only policies bring fear into communities, neighborhoods become less safe since people, afraid of being harassed and intimidated, stay home and do not report crime.

• An agenda that claims to stand on a “pro-family” platform cannot be so when:

• children are torn from their parents [Family separation occurs when raids take undocumented parents and deport them while children who are naturalized citizens stay in the U.S.]
• families are divided and forced to live in poverty [Practically every type of assistance given to children (food stamps, SCHIP. etc.) has exceptions that bar immigrant children from receiving benefits for at least some period of time.]
• children brought here by their parents are denied adequate nutrition or the chance of further education. [Opportunities like the DREAM Act, which would give deserving children of immigrants who have lived in the country for lengthy periods of time a chance at higher education, have failed at the national level.]

• Attempting to implement a flawed pilot e-verification program (as the SAVE Act proposes to do) across the country causes great inconvenience for American workers since it sometimes wrongly identifies citizens as non-citizens and vice versa.

• Moving immigrants away from a regulated, public workforce into an underground cash economy means the loss of a regulated system that collects taxes and ensures health and safety standards for all parties involved.

• Actions such as militarizing the border, building a huge and enormously costly 700-mile fence, and making English the national language do little to solve the overall problems.

• Build a 30-foot-high wall and someone can make a 31-foot-high ladder. A wall is an impractical solution that would cost millions of taxpayer dollars. When people are desperate to feed their families a give a better life to their children, a wall will not stop them.
• Adding more border security and inducing local law enforcement and the National Guard to take on more responsibilities places an undue burden and strain on them while failing to address the root causes of immigration (e.g., poverty, war and violence).
• There has never been evidence that immigrants avoid learning English. In fact, there are not enough classes and teachers to meet the demand. Making English the official language would make it more difficult to help immigrants transition into citizens.

For more information:

Enforcement Facts Backgrounder

Summary of the SAVE Act

Myths and Facts

NETWORK urges you to stand up against empty rhetoric and join in the debate. Serious attempts to fix the immigration system need new, innovative solutions instead of more of the same that makes our country less safe and less prosperous and diminishes our moral standing.