Families Will Be Torn Apart

After decades of neglect by lawmakers, years of fruitless debate, and much frustration, an immigration reform proposal has finally hit the floor of the US Senate. Unfortunately for the families of working immigrants, the bill hurts their cause while cruelly raising their hopes.

The US Senate has seen it fit, for the first time in US history, for immigrant families to face the very real possibility of being torn apart under the guise of reform. The bill currently under consideration in the US Senate does not allow families to stay together automatically. S1348 makes each person individually responsible for scoring points to become a legal resident. Under this cold point score approach few immigrants (and family members) will qualify for permanent legal status, (at a cost of at least $10,000 and a wait of 13-18 years) yet the vast majority will not.

  This Reform Will Create Hardship

Experts tell me that these rules will not accomplish the goal of ending undocumented immigration and bringing families out of the shadows. Instead families will be forced to continue to live in fear; waiting for the day they can live and work freely.

To make matters worse the Senate bill does not include an achievable pathway to permanent legal status for temporarily legal workers and forces each family’s head of household to return to their home country. The “touch back” provision alone forces each immigrant family to incur large expenses and experience significant wage losses. In short this Senate bill creates extreme hardships for the very families that most Americans believe it will help.

The Senate bill in its current form undermines families, is unrealistic in practice, and unworkable for our country. We can do better.

After countless years of waiting, paying un-refunded taxes, contributing significantly to our economy, and living in fear, America’s migrant workers deserve a just and humane bill.

Major Latino leaders and organizations oppose S1348 as currently written like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, the League of United Latin America Citizens, CARECEN, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, and the Mexican American Political Association. The AFL-CIO opposes S1348!

  We Still Have Time

Right now!

As you read this, S1348, the compromise immigration bill is being debated by the Senate. You can help shape the debate and enact fair immigration policy by emailing and calling your Senators today and telling them that you oppose the S1348 bill in its current form.

Please hurry we don't have a moment to waste. Your email and phone calls will be extremely important as the time for action is now.

I have attached a sample email that you can use to write to your Senators. If you would like, you can cut and paste the sample message into your Senators' email box. Your email and follow up phone calls will mean that the voices of those that can't yet vote can be heard on the floor of congress.

  Sample Email: S1348: Substantially Amend it or   End it!

I live in your state. I am very concerned about S1348, the "comprehensive immigration" bill.

I oppose S1348 because it will tear families apart. This bill will create a permanent immigrant underclass without rights, justice or opportunity. This is not what America stands for.

We must enact a bill that is humane, provides an unfettered path to permanent residency for present and future immigrants, does not militarize the US-Mexico border, preserves longstanding due process and privacy rights, and does not tear families apart.

The bill, in its current form, tears families apart, creates hardship for those it is intended to help, and is unrealistic in its approach to solving our current immigration dilemma.

Please take action and fight for a just and rational immigration reform, not mean-sprited S1348. We must act now. We cannot allow the creation of a second class of citizenry. We can do better.

Thank You,

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

[Your Zip Code]

(Senators need to see your address so they know you live in their state.)

  Contact Your Senators

Please contact your senators. Below you will find the phone number and a link to the Email form for both senators in your state. Please act now. Let them know that the current S1348 does more harm than good and you demand a just and rational immigration reform bill that preserves traditional pro-family American immigration ideals of inclusion, justice, fairness, equality, and opportunity

Contact Information:

Senator Barbara Boxer:
Phone: (202) 224-3553
Email: Click Here To Contact Senator Barbara Boxer

Senator Dianne Feinstein:
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Email: Click Here To Contact Senator Dianne Feinstein

  Act Now

Right now!

  About WCVI

The William C. Velásquez Institute (WCVI) is a tax-exempt, non-profit, non-partisan public policy analysis organization chartered in 1985. The purpose of WCVI is to: conduct research aimed at improving the level of political and economic participation in Latino and other underrepresented communities; To provide information to Latino leaders relevant to the needs of their constituents; To inform the Latino leadership and public about the impact of public policies on Latinos; To inform the Latino leadership and public about political opinions and behavior of Latinos.