CAMPAIGN TO REFORM IMMIGRATION FOR AMERICA

Coming to Washington is a March for Immigration reform on March 21st, 2010. The March will be huge and demanding. Below is from the Reform Immigration for America website.

http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/

What is the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America?

The Campaign to Reform Immigration for America is a united national effort that brings together individuals and grassroots organizations with the mission to build support for workable comprehensive immigration reform. The Campaign to Reform Immigration for America is, in part, a project of the Tides Advocacy Fund.

The campaign connects people from communities across the country who are ready to work together towards achieving the 279 votes needed to win just and humane comprehensive immigration reform legislation: 218 votes in the House of Representatives, 60 votes in the Senate, and one signature from the President.

We will be working especially hard with advocates and leaders from faith communities, small business owners, unions and labor advocates; and community-based civil rights, human rights, and immigrant-serving groups.

Our vision of reform includes immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens working shoulder to shoulder to achieve better wages, working conditions, and labor protections—making sure everyone is playing by the same set of rules so that it is harder for unscrupulous employers to cheat immigrants and therefore harder for everyone to be cheated. We need to build faith in our immigration system so that people respect the process and so that the process respects them. That’s our vision for a stronger America.

Why Now?

Plain and simple, the U.S. immigration system – as it currently exists and operates – no longer works. Fixing it presents a daunting challenge, but action must be taken sooner rather than later. The time is now to do the right thing and fight for practical solutions that benefit all of us and are rooted in the restoration of the rule of law, earned citizenship, united families, and fair treatment of workers.

Untargeted raids in workplaces and neighborhoods and rogue enforcement agents at all levels are terrorizing immigrant workers and dividing families without making us any safer and without fixing the real problems with our immigration system. Our out-of-date laws force many American families to remain separated for years – and in some cases, decades – because of backlogs and barriers to family unification in our immigration system.

American-born workers suffer if there is a vast pool of undocumented workers who are easily exploited by employers who seek unfair advantage. All of us are stronger if all of us have rights.

Finally, our outdated laws are practically unenforceable, driving too much immigration into the black market and not enough immigration through legal and orderly channels for immigrants who want to work in this country.

The result is hundreds of thousands of immigrants being detained each year, hundreds of thousands deported, people forced to take life-threatening risks because they cannot enter legally, people dying in the desert, and people dying in detention due to awful conditions and official neglect. We can and must do better.

What does the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America stand for?

We are a united voice for just and humane immigration reform. Our campaign supports the following principles

Immigration reform must promote economic opportunity. We must renew our commitment to helping all low-income Americans improve their job prospects and move up the economic ladder towards the American Dream.

Immigration reform must be comprehensive. Unless we tackle the broken immigration system as a whole, we will fail to solve the problem at hand.

Long-term reform requires long term solutions. The factors shaping immigration are not just domestic; the issue transcends our borders. As such, how we as a country approach our relationships with other nations matters. We must deal with the domestic aspect of this issue and work in partnership with other countries over time to develop long-term strategies.

A reform package that works for all communities and families in America should include the following

A rational and humane approach to the undocumented population. We must address the more than twelve million undocumented immigrants living in this country by creating a rigorous registration process that leads to lawful permanent resident status and eventual citizenship.

Protect U.S. and immigrant workers. Immigration reform is a component of building real economic security, contributing to a shared prosperity agenda that maintains and improves wages and working conditions in the United States and in other countries. We must protect all workers’ rights, regardless of whether they were born in the United States or abroad, and any employment verification system should determine employment authorization accurately and efficiently while protecting workers and good-faith employers.

Allocate sufficient visas to close unlawful migration channels. One of the great failures of our current system is that the level of legal immigration is set arbitrarily by Congress—as a product of political compromise. The allocation of employment visas to workers should be depoliticized and placed in the hands of an independent commission that can assess labor shortages and determine the number and characteristics of foreign workers to be admitted, with Congress’s approval.

Enhance our nation’s security and safety. A sensible enforcement strategy will keep America safe, protect due process and human rights, make the most effective use of the tools and policies already available in a fair and reasonable manner, and be fiscally responsible. Such a strategy would prioritize enforcement actions to target genuine threats, violent individuals, unscrupulous employers; traffickers and drug smugglers, and those that might exploit the immigration system to do the country harm.

Establish a strategic border enforcement policy that reflects American values. A border strategy that prioritizes the safety and security of border communities and consults with these communities in the process is the best way to ensure that our border policies protect our national security, while balancing enforcement with economic development and human and civil rights.

Keep American families together. Our outdated family immigration channels, which keep close family members separated for decades, must be reformed to restore our commitment to promoting family unity.

Promote immigrant integration.

The federal government must help new immigrants learn our language and laws, ensure equal opportunity for immigrants to participate in programs and services, and support state and local governments’ efforts to help integrate these new Americans.

Protect fundamental rights for all. Congress must restore basic civil liberties and reaffirm Constitutional protections for all individuals in this country and renew our commitment to core American values of fairness and justice.

The document with the complete Principles of Immigration Reform adopted by the campaign is available here.

Who are we?

We are asking Americans who support immigration reform to join us. We are reaching out to all Americans who want a common-sense solution to our broken immigration system that strengthens equal opportunity and the rule of law, treats hardworking immigrant families with respect and dignity, and moves all communities and families in America forward together. If you agree, please join us today.