We Still Have A Dream

2005-12-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Bush's proposal fails to repair a broken immigration system
by Helene Slessarev-JamirSojoMail 12-07-2005

Last week President Bush made several long-awaited policy statements on immigration, calling for stepped-up border security and a new guest worker program that would require people who are already in the U.S. to return to their home countries in order to apply. If accepted they would receive temporary visas allowing them to work in the U.S. for a maximum of six years. These proposals may satisfy elements of the president's electoral constituency, but they fall woefully short of the comprehensive overhaul of the country's immigration laws that is sorely needed.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there were roughly 31.1 million foreign-born residents living in the U.S., making up 11.1% of the population. The vast majority come from poor countries in the global South - roughly 80% are from Latin America, Asia, or Africa - where jobs remain scarce and salaries are very low compared to those in the U.S. For many families in Mexico and Central America, immigration has become a basic survival strategy, with one or two members risking their lives to cross an increasingly treacherous border in order to work low-paying service jobs and send money home. Most immigrants would prefer to stay home if work were available in their home countries.

Certainly there is a need to strengthen the integrity of this country's border, so that all entrants arrive with documents. However, tightening border security - without at the same time creating viable means by which people can come legally - will not work. At the moment the number of visas allotted to countries in the Western Hemisphere is woefully low, so that the only option is to cross without papers.

It is also unrealistic to think that the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already in the U.S. - according to a 2005 Pew Hispanic Center report - will return to their home countries to apply for guest worker visas that will only allow them to remain in the U.S. for three to six years. Many are already well-established in the U.S. with jobs and families. They have children who were born here as U.S. citizens. Real immigration reform must include an avenue for those who are already in this country to regularize their status.

A guest worker program will satisfy the labor needs of U.S. employers who have come to depend on low-paid immigrant workers. However, most guest worker programs tie the worker to a specific employer, essentially creating a captive workforce, without basic worker protections. Organized labor has argued against a guest worker program because it will drag down the wages and benefits of native - born workers.

Immigrant activists and advocates are calling for some form of comprehensive immigration reform. Most are supporting the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005, (SB1033/HR 2330) a bipartisan bill introduced in May by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). The bill recognizes that enforcement alone will not work. Therefore it creates a pathway to citizenship for those who are now here without documents. Yet it is not a simple amnesty program. Applicants for a new temporary visa would be required to pay penalties, including back taxes for all the years they have been working in the U.S.

The bill would allow them to remain in the U.S. with their families, change jobs, and go home for visits. At the same time, it would increase border security, while working with the nations in Latin America to increase economic development there. Immigrants who are already in the U.S. would have to wait at least six years before they could apply for permanent residency, provided that they work and have no criminal record. In the meantime, the U.S. would clear out the vast backlog of visa applications that have been filed by U.S. citizens on behalf of family members living overseas. Because visa quotas are set so low for certain countries, including the Philippines, India, and Mexico, the wait to bring family can now be as long as 20 years.

A second bill, known as the Dream Act and recently reintroduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), would open up an avenue to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Although these children have often lived in the U.S. most of their lives and attended schools here, they cannot now legally work. They are also ineligible for any federally funded educational scholarships, and most states charge them higher out-of-state tuition to attend public college or university. As a result, these children effectively face a dead end when they graduate high school, which many believe has contributed to their low high school completion rates. This bill would encourage states to allow these children to pay in-state tuition while opening up the possibility of gaining permanent residency for those who came before their 16th birthday, have completed high school, and have shown good moral character.

Helene Slessarev-Jamir, member of the Sojourners board of directors and director of urban studies at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, is a second-generation American whose parents came to the U.S. in the 1950s.

2005-10-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

Check out this letter written by my friend Abraham in Arizona

When you read this you may wonder why a student whodoes not attend the University of Arizona is writing aletter to the editor! Well, I never thought I wouldhave to write this but yesterday I was baffled when Iread Kara Karlson’s article “A day without anAmerican.”

First I would like to point out that no “teenage,pimply American kid” would mow her lawn for let’s say…$4 and hour, which sounds about right for what an illegal worker would get paid. Or tell me, would youpick tomatoes in the fields for 7 cents a bucket oftomatoes that you pick? The article also mentions Mexico and Latin America but I never read about countries like Ghana, Bosnia,or Indonesia. It is true that most of the immigrants that come either legally or illegally come from Mexico and Latin America but there are also people, not one or two but even thousands who come other countries illegally too! It is not fair that you write onlyabout Latinos. What about Canadians and Europeans? They come to work“illegally” in this country too. But maybe they are looked upon differently because their countries have stronger economies and because of the color of their skin.

Ms. Karlson should have done a little bit more research on immigration and naturalization laws before writing the article. It is a little less difficult fora parent to become a U.S. citizen if his or her child“claims” or applies for the parent to become a citizenonce the child is 18 years of age. However, this only happens in very special cases and the process takes along time. Another thing she mentioned is that the“new citizen” can then bring people over from his orher country of origin and they would then become citizens too which is true but rarely happens because it is very difficult. It takes up to 10 years for a person to become a citizen under those circumstances. There is mention of illegal immigrants collecting benefits from the government. It is true that they can receive government aid for children who are citizens but the total amount of help received by immigrants is by far less than the amount “illegals” pay on taxes. Oh they do pay taxes in case you did not know! Theamount received by the U.S. economy from undocumented workers is about $100 billion and the costs of illegalimmigration amounts to $3 billion. Of that $100 billion, $7 billion goes into Social Security alone, which will not be claimed by the people who earned it.

I know that there are drug dealers and criminals crossing the border but there are also people trying to survive. People who would rather play their last card by crossing a deceiving desert than to see their children die. And I believe that if you were in the same situation, you would do the same. And about seeing “A day without Americans”, I honestlybelieve that the possible outcome mentioned in the article would be absolutely the same as if Mexicanswere missing. Sadly enough, immigrants need jobs and employers as much as the employers need all the cheap labor that will bring money to the economy for theU.S. to go around doing “good deeds”.

J. A. Suastez PCC Student

2005-09-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

The Invisible Victims of Katrina

Commentary, María Elena Salinas, Sep 22, 2005

There are thousands of them. They worked in restaurants, washing dishes. They cooked, baby-sat and mowed lawns. They helped build houses and cleaned casinos. They lived in homes, paid taxes, contributed to the economy. Millions of people have benefited from their work, yet no one acknowledges their existence...

Read the entire article at the following link:
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=86051f69d80332aac65aedfb14e8599b

2005-08-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

Check out this commentary by Chuck Colson.

A 'No Truth' Zone: Borders, Immigration, and Worldview
August 16, 2005

There's an issue that refuses to go away even though many politicians wish it would. Since it engenders great passion on both sides of the political divide both parties view it as a "no-win" issue: For every one potential voter you please, you're likely to alienate another one.While many Americans oppose what is happening, most have come to rely upon it and probably wouldn't want to live in a society where it's eliminated altogether. The issue I'm referring to is illegal immigration.

There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. The majority of these come from Mexico and Central America. Contrary to the stereotype, however, they are not all farm workers or domestics. Nearly one-third of them own their own homes, and many have U.S.-born children. In other words, they have roots in this country. Many of them provide cheap labor, which we all benefit from.But none of this changes the fact that they are here in violation of U.S. law. Nor should their success make us feel better about our porous borders.

Illegal immigration and the borders that make it possible is the subject of two competing proposals in the U.S. Senate. One bill would require illegal immigrants to report to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, pay a fine, and be deported back to their home countries. Once there, they would be eligible to apply for a "guest-worker" program. A competing proposal would also offer illegal immigrants entry into a "guest-worker" program. But this proposal would also grant them legal residency and the possibility of citizenship. Some think goes too far.As hard as this issue is for our leaders, it's even harder for Christians. We're commanded to be good citizens who are committed to the welfare of the city in which God has placed us to live. The porous borders that have enabled 11 million people to settle in this country illegally raise obviously dangerous security concerns. Those same borders allowing people to seek a better life for their families allow terrorists to come in to destroy us. We need to tighten border security. And we must oppose blatant disregard for the law. If immigration laws are too restrictive, the answer is to amend them, not ignore them. But along with these concerns, we also need to recall God's command to welcome the foreigner and sojourner in our midst.

The Scriptures tells us that hospitality toward the aliens in its midst is the hallmark of a good society. In fact, extending the hand of friendship toward those who are different from them is a way the people of God distinguish themselves from their unbelieving neighbors. While this kind of hospitality doesn't require that Christians advocate open borders, it does require us to be salt and light in the debate over immigration reform. At the very least, we should work to elevate the level of discourse and prevent the demonizing of the "other" in our midst. And we ought to remind our fellow citizens who are so angry about immigration that it is our desire for cheap labor that has contributed to the problem. It's bad enough that illegal immigration is a "no-win" issue; it should not be a "no-truth" issue, as well.

And in the end, we must, as Christians, treat everyone in our midst with godly compassion. Get links to further information on today's topic, simply visit http://msg1svc.net/servlet/Gateway?p=pfm&u=34863&et=H&s=167396 and click on Today's Commentary.

Copyright (c) 2005 Prison Fellowship

2005-07-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

This really looks like the answer to our current immigration problems!

2005-07-31T16:10:00.000-07:00

Now is the time to pray and work on behalf of the millions of undocumented men, women, and children that are in our country without much hope for the kind of future you and I desire for our own families.

2005-07-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

Immigration Reform’s “Elephant In The Room”: 11 Million People In The Shadows, What Will Work To Bring Them Forward?
July 27, 2003

A hearing on comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday tackled head-on the thorny issue of what to do with the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

Either they leave and return to the U.S. through some type of new temporary worker program after which they must return home or they stay and work while getting in line to gain eventual legal permanent residency.

The bills discussed in yesterday’s hearing mirror these ideas. The bipartisan Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 (S. 1033/H.R. 2330), introduced by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) and Representatives Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), requires undocumented immigrants to come forward, pay a fine, and permits them to stay in the U.S. and apply for a worker visa. If they choose to, they may eventually apply for legal permanent status.

The Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Act of 2005 (S. 1438), introduced by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), calls for undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S. Once outside the U.S., they may apply for a guest worker program which would require them to eventually return home. Senators Cornyn and Kyl emphasized that participants may apply for permanent status “through the normal channels.” However, they failed to address the virtual absence of legal channels for people seeking residency.

Which of these approaches would really work on the ground?

According to former Representative Hal Daub (R-NE), President and CEO of the American Health Care Association & National Center For Assisted Living, who testified at the hearing, “work and return” would not be ideal for the health care industry. “[We] find it illogical that an administrator must send his or her most senior, qualified aide home after just two or three years simply because they were born in a foreign country.” According to a press release from conservative activist Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, the Cornyn/Kyl approach won’t work.

“That provision is highly impractical, would never happen in the real world, and would encourage undocumented workers to avoid, not comply with, the new law. Can you imagine the prospect of 11 million hardworking laborers having to go across a border just to sign a piece of paper, only to return to their current jobs? That’s just the kind of bureaucratic run-around people leave their home countries to avoid.”
Fellow conservative Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute, said in her testimony yesterday:

“An effective temporary worker program will have to be large enough to provide the workers we need to keep our economy growing and flexible enough to accommodate a variety of immigrants, including those who ultimately chose to settle in the United States. Of the two proposals on the table, only the McCain-Kennedy bill meets the second requirement, and it is the only one that seems likely to work realistically to meet our future labor needs.”

And an editorial in today’s Tucson Citizen has more:
“The McCain proposal is likely to be far more successful in enticing people to come forward. Faced with the requirement that they leave the country, as the Kyl bill does, and the economic hardship that would impose, those here illegally would have little incentive to participate.” (Tucson Citizen, Editorial, Immigration still is low on Bush's agenda, July 27, 2005.)

Finally, what does the Latino community think? In January 2004, right after President Bush issued his principles for immigration reform, a national poll conducted by Bendixen & Associates for New California Media/Pacific News Service found that when asked to choose between an earned legalization policy and the President’s temporary legal status proposal (which is similar to the Cornyn/Kyl formula), 75% of Latinos polled favored the proposal for earned legalization while 16% preferred the President’s temporary worker program.

Will Congress advance authentic reform that may actually work? Or will they pass laws so skewed by political calculations that the result will be little if any improvement over the status quo – further eroding American’s trust in our immigration system? Let’s hope Congress chooses to do the former.
http://www.immigrationforum.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=758

2005-07-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

Leviticus 19:33-34

33 " 'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

2005-07-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

GREAT NEWS

In a Chicago Tribune article about the DREAM Act on Sunday, it had a quote from a spokesperson from Senator Dick Durbin's office that said that he intended to reintroduce this bill.

That being said in a public statement, we really need to rally the troops to encourage Durbin to do so ASAP.

Tonight I have a meeting with some HS and college students from La Villita Community Church to talk about how they can get involved. My hope is they will help to lead the charge.

Let me know if you have any ideas for taking action on a larger scale.

2005-07-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

FROM GLEN

This summer, http://www.nomoredeaths.org No More Deaths volunteers, along with their Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) co-workers, are roaming the U.S./Mexico borderlands, offering food, water and medical attention to migrants in distress.Sounds more like a good deed than an illegal act ˆ but this month, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested two volunteers who were transporting severely dehydrated migrants to treatment in Tucson. http://nomoredeaths.org

2005-07-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

FROM GLEN

Here is a link to some other people of faith working on the immigration issue: http://mcc.org/us/immigration/ http://mcc.org/us/immigration/

2005-07-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

FROM SCOTT

Here is a recent blog post with similar supporting research:http://hispanicpundit.com http://hispanicpundit.comIronically, this site is typically more conservative - both politically & economically.

2005-07-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Five Myths about Immigration
From http://www.AILA.org

Myth Number 1: Immigrants take jobs away from Americans.

It is not true that immigrants take jobs away from Americans. Here’s why:

Immigrants do not increase unemployment among natives. A study by economists Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway, and Stephen Moore found that states with relatively high immigration actually experience low unemployment. The economists believed that it is likely immigration opens up many job opportunities for natives. They wrote, “First, immigrants may expand the demand for goods and services through their consumption. Second, immigrants may contribute to output through the investment of savings they bring with them. Third, immigrants have high rates of entrepreneurship, which may lead to the creation of new jobs for U.S. workers. Fourth, immigrants may fill vital niches in the low and high skilled ends of the labor market, thus creating subsidiary job opportunities for Americans. Fifth, immigrants may contribute to economies of scale in production and the growth of markets.” 1

Research on immigration’s labor market consequences on minorities has also yielded information that suggests little negative impact. In her study on immigration’s impact on the wages and employment of black men, the Urban Institute’s Maria E. Enchautegui concluded, “The results show that in the 1980s black men were not doing worse in areas of high immigration than in other areas and that their economic status in high-immigration areas did not deteriorate during that decade.”2 The National Academy of Science study The New Americans, while finding there may be some impact of immigration on some African Americans locally, concluded that “While some have suspected that blacks suffer disproportionately from the inflow of lowskilled immigrants, none of the available evidence suggests that they have been particularly hard-hit on a national level.”3

Even in particular sectors of the economy, the evidence of a negative impact of immigrants on natives is limited. A review of studies by Jeffrey Passel of the Urban Institute found that “The majority find no more evidence of displacement than is revealed by the aggregate data. Even studies of more highly skilled occupations, (e.g., registered nurses), find no strong evidence of displacement.”4

Immigrants fill niches at the high and low ends of the labor market. This will be increasingly important in the future. As the U.S. population ages, many skilled workers and professionals will retire, leaving gaps for employers. Meanwhile, as jobs in the skilled professions become more attractive, natives will continue the trend of gaining higher levels of education and abandoning lower skilled jobs. (Today, less than 10 percent of native-born Americans have not completed high school.) That will create gaps at the lower end of the job market, as the demand in health care, hospitality, and other service jobs increases as the U.S. population ages.

Some wage studies are dubious. Harvard economist George Borjas has argued that immigrants lower the wages of native high school dropouts. His theory is that these impacts do not show up locally, since natives move out of state in response to immigrants moving into an area. However, research by Columbia University economist Francisco L. Rivera-Batiz shows the flaw in Borjas’ theory, since Rivera-Batiz found that native out-migration in states that receive many immigrants is barely measurable and to the extent it occurs it is college-educated natives who have left, presumably for a variety of reasons. Rivera-Batiz concluded that “Although the supply of workers with less than a high school education has been increased by immigration, both theory and empirical evidence suggest that there has been very little, if any, impact of immigration on the wages of high-school dropouts.”5

There is no such thing as a fixed number of jobs. Contrary to the belief that an increasing number of people compete for a static number of jobs, in fact, the number of jobs in America has increased by 15 million between 1990 and 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. Department of Labor).6 Between 2000 and 2010, more than 33 million new job openings will be created in the United States that require only little or moderate training, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This will represent 58 percent of all new job openings.7

2005-07-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

Comprehensive Immigration Reform
(The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act: S.1033 and H.R.2330)

4 Main messages

WE HAVE THE SOLUTION (Overarching theme)
· Polling has shown that the American public wants a real solution to the current immigration debate. 77% of Americans say they would support reform that includes border protections, a guestworker program with worker protections, a path to citizenship for the undocumented, and an end to the backlogs that separate families.
· The other side has no workable solutions. Deport 10 million undocumented immigrants working and paying taxes? Even they know that would be economic suicide. Put armed citizens on the border? No one is safer that way. We have a solution that makes sense.
· A guestworker program alone does not solve our current situation. Like any other public policy, we must plan into the future. People must be rewarded for their work and families must stay together. We must know who is in the country in order to protect our national security. We need comprehensive reform that address all aspects of this complicated debate.

FAMILY UNITY
· Our current system separates families. The parents of US born children can be deported and families torn apart for good. There is no path to citizenship for many working parents that are contributing to our country and economy.
· The immigration bureaucracy is inefficient and inhumane. Because of backlogs families are forced to wait years, even decades to be reunited with their loved ones. For example, US citizen from the Philippines would have to wait an average of 20 years to be united with a sibling.

NATIONAL SECURITY
· Everyone is safer when we know who is in the country. The current system allows for and even encourages a black market for workers and documents. This is bad for business, workers, and national security. The solution is to give people a way to work and live in the country legally, so that millions can come out of the shadows.
· Undocumented workers who live in fear are more reluctant to report crime and work with local police enforcement. We need a system that allows open lines of communication between communities.

JOBS and the ECONOMY
· The current system allows for and even encourages a black market for workers and documents. This is bad for business, workers, and national security.
· Undocumented workers do not have adequate worker protections.

Problem:
As advocates for immigrants, we need to step forward and define what the “problem” is. In this way, we are in a better position to define the “solution.”

The problem the American people are most concerned with is that nobody seems to be in control of immigration. America has always struggled with change, growth, and immigration, but our current immigration system is so broken, it appears to have no rules and nobody in charge.

This is very similar to the problem as seen by immigrant communities: that the immigration system is broken and it keeps families separated by borders, makes it hard to come here legally, creates incentives to come illegally, and drives many immigrants and their families into the black market for employment, smugglers, and documents, creating a fear of coming in contact with authorities. Good people are being thwarted by bad laws.

We therefore share a common concern, with even the hardcore anti-immigration movement – that the current immigration system is in desperate need of repair.

The Solution:
If the problem is the lack of a safe, orderly, and controlled immigration system, the solution is to reform our immigration laws to bring them more closely into alignment with the economic, social, and family realities that drive immigration.

In short, the demand for legal visas – not just by immigrants, but by employers seeking employees, families seeking to be reunited, and by immigrants seeking opportunity – is not met by the supply of legal visas in our overly restrictive, bureaucratic immigration system.

If we are going to gain control of our borders and our immigration system, we’ve got to reform our immigration laws so that more of the people who are coming can come legally and more of our scarce law enforcement and border patrol resources can be focused on keeping out people who might actually seek to do us harm (terrorists, drug smugglers, violent criminals etc.).

Turbo-charging the message: Who we are…
In addition to defining the problem and the solution, our messages can be much more effective if we remember to connect our messages to the people, communities, and the commonly held national values involved. We’ve got to connect this issue to core values that connect with the American people and immigrant communities.

We know that immigrants and their families build, clean, feed, and care for our country. They serve in its defense in the military and elsewhere. We trust immigrants with our children, our homes, our cars, our health care, the care of our elderly, and so many other things.

Today’s immigrants are seeking a better life for themselves and their families, just as everyone’s ancestors did when they left their place of birth seeking the American Dream. They have chosen to risk everything – even their lives – to come here to work, contribute, and seek opportunity.

When America lives up to its greatest ideals, it welcomes immigrants seeking a better life and incorporates them into our communities with rights, dignity, and within a controlled and legal system. America is a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

Why it matters to all Americans:
To these messages, we need to add an appeal to all Americans – immigrants and non-immigrants alike. We need to show why this matters and why our approach is better for all. We know what immigration reform will mean to immigrant communities, but we also know reform will be a benefit to the economy, to security, to order, to the rule of law, and to reestablishing America’s commitment to justice, inclusion, and a sense of shared destiny.

We must take this opportunity to stress that we have a better solution to fixing America’s broken immigration system.

2005-07-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

America is Immigration

Asian-American, Cuban-American, European-American, African-American, Mexican-American"…"different backgrounds, different cultures, but all united by the fact that when the hyphen is eliminated we are all Americans.
Over the years the United States has been called a nation of immigrants. The fact that we are a melting pot for so many different cultures, races, and religions makes us unique in the world. It is also what has helped mold our national character. For more than 300 years, various ethnic, cultural, and social groups have come to our shores to reunite with their loved ones, to seek economic opportunity, and to find a haven from religious and political persecution. They bring their hopes, their dreams, and, in turn, contribute, enrich, and energize America.
And yet, today, we are witnessing television shows that vilify newcomers as scam artists, news stories that showcase the growing backlash against immigration, and politicians and reporters who make no distinction between immigrants entering the country legally or illegally. Unfortunately, much of what we are reading, hearing, and seeing is based on fiction, not fact. So what is the true story?

Less than a million immigrants arrive in the United States each year. Of these, 700,000 enter as lawful permanent residents and another 100,000 to 150,000 enter legally as refugees or others fleeing persecution. Undocumented immigrants constitute only 1% of the total U.S. population and, contrary to popular belief, most of these immigrants do not enter the United States illegally by crossing our border with Canada or Mexico. Instead most immigrants here illegally, 6 out of 10, enter the U.S. legally with a student, tourist, or business visa and become illegal when they stay in the United States after their visas expire.

Most legal immigrants, about 8 out of 11, come to join close family members. Family-sponsored immigrants enter as either immediate relatives--spouses, unmarried minor children, parents-- of U.S. citizens, or through the family preference system, for relatives of permanent residents and siblings of U.S. citizens. While there are unlimited number of visas issued for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, INS data shows that only around 235,000 visas have been issued annually in this category in recent years. The family preference system is far more restrictive and limits the number of visas issued in its four categories to a total of 226,000 per year. In addition, the waiting period for a visa can very long. For example, a sibling of a U.S. citizen who applies today to immigrate to this country could get a visa 30 years from now.

It is easy to see that family reunification is the cornerstone of our legal immigration policy. It is truly one of the most visible areas in government policy in which we support and strengthen family values. We acknowledge that family unification translates into strong families who build strong communities.

The second priority of our legal admissions system allows employers to bring in a relatively small number of skilled workers from overseas when there are no qualified Americans available to fill the job. This doesn't mean that we shirk our responsibility to educate and train those already here. It only means that we recognize the need to be able to attract talented and hardworking individuals from all corners of the world and to acquire often needed expertise and experience.

This concept is not new. Throughout our history we have relied on the strength, expertise, and special skills of foreign workers and immigrants to build this country. As early as 1610 Italian craftsmen were brought to the New World by the Virginia Colony to start the glass trade. In the mid- 1800s American manufacturers advertised in European newspapers offering free passage to any man willing to come to the United States to work for them. Immigrant workers have altered American life and their contributions were, and still are, significant to the economic growth of our nation.

Finally, American immigration policy fulfills our commitment to religious and political freedom. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," is not rhetoric, it is America's pledge to ensure that those brave men and women who face the prospect of ethnic cleansing, religious oppression, torture, and even death have a haven. Because this country was founded in large part by those who fled various kinds of political and religious persecution, it has become of our historical responsibility to serve as an advocate for human rights.

2005-07-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

DREAM BLOG

After waiting to develop a website I figured this was all we needed to get started. If you were at the UYWI 'Day Without A Mexican' workshop, and would like to be added as a contributor to this BLOG let me know. Some of you all need to lead us on this.

Again, our dream is that we can fuel a movement of young people (and the young at heart) that would get radically engaged in doing justice on behalf of children, young people, and families that are suffering because of our current immigration system, that does not take into account the reality of our current situation in regards to immigration. We have laws that prohibit employers from hiring undocumented workers, yet, because of the need for these workers, they are hired to meet the demands of our ecomomy.

While many industries depend on these workers, it is the undocumented and their families that are vilified for being 'lawbreakers' that should be deported. If the political and economic will to do so were in our nation's best interest, it would be happening, instead these workers are blamed for all of the ills of our country.

Beyond all of the morality and economic arguments that are flying around regarding the issue of immigration, are real lives and real individuals who are here trying to make a living for themselves and for their families--often with much hardship, and a great deal of fear. From California to the Carolinas, families in this situation are voiceless and in great need of advocates. Here is where we can step in and make our voices heard, along with our undocumented neighbors, in order to bring about changes in our current immigration system. Nothing short of this will be a sufficient response to the deep needs of these families.

In the past, many of us spent all of our energy meeting personal and individual needs of families, regardless of their immigration status, but we did little or nothing to engaging in the political and legislative process that is needed to bring about systemic change. This is another way we can truly show love to our neighbors who are left hiding in the shadows with little hope of ever living in peace (which is what all of desire for ourselves).

Among those most hurt, are young children and youth who have spent most of their lives in the USA, and yet are considered outsiders. Worse yet are mixed families, where the kids are US citizens and the parents are undocumented, with so much ambiguity about their futures in this country.

We Still Have A Dream, can become a movement were many of us who are youthworkers, and committed followers of Christ, can advocate for these youths, working to make sure they have a future, which in our nation which has always been a land of immigrants.

With this BLOG, we hope to invite you and others to communicate stories, ideas, actions, concerns, and updates on current immigration reform efforts that will help us to ignite and sustain this effort that began at Azusa U. (Another movement of God that began at Azusa).