The Left continues to fight Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) based on "color," criminality and plain stupidity. In that they join the anti-reform people like the Congressman from STUPID, Stevie King, the Chicano Willie Velasquez Institute, and MAP a splinter radical group in California. Their reasons are specious as are their very existence. They want total amnesty and open borders and all criminal records expunged; they are leftist fruitcakes. Here is their trash designed to stop CIR in its tracks: Families for Freedom Rejects S. 744: Noncitizens Communities Endangered by More Exclusion and Criminalization -- Families for Freedom, a New York-based multi-ethnic human rights organization by and for families facing and fighting deportation, rejects the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, S.744 introduced by Senator Charles Schumer [D-NY]. Since 2002, Families for Freedom has supported thousands of our loved ones as they confront an increasingly draconian detention and deportation system that has imprisoned and removed close to four million people in two decades; two million in the last five years alone. As it stands, this specific “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” bill does nothing meaningful for our families. Politicians dangle the prospect of legalization in front of us, but with the heavy cost of increased ICE and border enforcement, more deportations of those who have had contact with the criminal legal system, and no right of return for those that have been deported under expansive categories of convictions. We will not accept the legalization of our daughters and sons in exchange for the banishment of our mothers, fathers and all who deserve to be reunited with their families. CIR: A dangerous euphemism We need to prioritize human life and dignity when considering how we will modernize our immigration system. Reforming a system without addressing its racial bias and links to harmful environmental, foreign and economic policies isn’t going to fix anything in the long term. The misleading term “comprehensive immigration reform” (CIR), once aptly described by Gabriel Arana at the American Prospect as “the euphemistic plan to trade tougher enforcement for much-needed improvements to immigration law,” has become not just a euphemism, but a dangerous idea that continues to paper over the trampling of human rights and civil liberties through legislation like S. 744. If what we want is Comprehensive immigration reform, to support S. 744 is incomprehensible. RPI status and enforcement = Catch-22 for human rights and dignity S. 744 takes us away from developing policy rooted in family unity and expands the ways in which more and more migrants of color are brought into the criminal legal system, where they are denied legal representation, due process, and suffer human rights violations. The bill also does nothing to integrate accountability measures to address corruption, dehumanizing conditions or loss of life encountered in detention camps, border crossings and interactions with border patrol and ICE. Instead, the bill militarizes the border and expands interior enforcement, all to the tune of more than $40 billion taxpayer dollars. Earlier this year, Families for Freedom released a report entitled, "Uncovering USBP: Bonus Programs for United States Border Patrol Agents and the Arrest of Lawfully Present Individuals”, which revealed nearly 300 wrongful arrests by Border Patrol and almost $1 million in cash and other incentives for only one border patrol station in Buffalo, NY. We are outraged to know that S.744 proposes to provide USBP with increased funding for Border Patrol agents and weaponry. This funding would double USBP’s size from 20,000 agents to 40,000, and provide them war weaponry such as Blackhawk attack helicopters and drones. Our report illustrates that USBP is essentially a rogue agency, increasing funds will only lead to more wrongful arrests and racial profiling practices. S. 744 provides most of us with two options: “Registered Provisional Immigrant” status or deportation. The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law estimates that 5 million people will not qualify for temporary legal or “Registered Provisional Immigrant” status and will thus be in danger of immediate deportation. As “RPIs” we would not enter a path to citizenship, but rather a probation period without a full legal status and no legal rights. Not only is this status riddled with exclusionary barriers that target poor people, but it can also be taken away at any point. The bill does not create a pathway to citizenship for those who have been here legally for years as Green Card holders who have had contact with the criminal legal system, even when their debt to society has been paid. They’re coming for all of us Among our biggest concerns is that S. 744 systematically binds the criminal legal system rooted in mass imprisonment with an immigration system driven by enforcement. With this union, S. 744 will push to expand the categories of who is considered a “criminal alien” and accelerate the process from detention to deportation, leaving little to no opportunities for discretion and due process. As a result, Green Card holders, asylum seekers, many undocumented people who may not qualify for "R P I" status, and other noncitizens with convictions, will continue to be denied basic human rights. As people in solidarity with human rights and racial justice fights, we will not on one hand criticize the criminal legal system for being flawed and racist and yet hypocritically justify and condone it when it interacts with noncitizens. The United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world, of which 60 percent are black and Latino. The term “New Jim Crow” is fitting to describe a system that no longer administers justice, but legal racially biased punishment instead. The list of high-priority deportable crimes continues to increase and is tied to the root issue of mass incarceration that plagues communities of color, with or without papers. In this system, illegal entry and re-entry into the United States is already the most prosecuted charge in federal courts today. Migrants who enter without papers for the first time will be punished with prison sentences of one year, three years for re-entry, and migrants with prior convictions of more than 15 days jail time will be punished with up to 10 year sentences. Millions of poor people of color who have contact with the criminal legal system will be jailed, categorized and forced to leave the country without guarantee of being able to return, ever. In this system, a deported mother who re-enters to be with her U.S.-citizen children, or a young person who’s lived here her whole life, and has kicked a drug addiction and been rehabilitated, will be banished instead of remaining unified with her family. Family unity and dignity for all We simply want a reform that is rooted in family unity, due process and a dignified relationship with our neighbors in Mexico. In 2006, when the last major immigration push was underway, we whole-heartedly supported the Child Citizen Protection Act, which would restore an immigration judge’s discretion to stop the deportation of virtually any immigrant if that deportation were against the best interests of their U.S.-citizen child. We will continue to support any legislation, small or large, that respects the right of all families to remain together. Last year, about 400,000 families were separated. Yesterday, a thousand people were forced out of the country. Today, 34,000 of our loved ones deteriorate in prisons and detention centers across the country awaiting real reform. Millions of people in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and other migrant-sending regions of the global south live with the pain of family separation. Those numbers alone should be enough to teach us about the perils of migration control policies that place the interest of military contractors and discriminatory party politics ahead of the humanity of migrant communities. Standing on the tears, hearts, and hopes of our families we want reform with justice, not a bargain with politicians that promises provisional status in exchange for a police state. 35 West 31st St, #702 New York, NY 10001 United States
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 22:00:32 +0000
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