July 10, 2013

New York City

“A Call to Immigrant Organizations, Workers Centers, and Allies:

Building for a Just, Humane and Inclusive Immigration Reform, and Beyond”

            As a coalition of multi-racial and grassroots immigrant membership-based organizations and allies, Immigrant Communities in Action (ICA) expresses our collective alarm and opposition to the Senate bill, S.B. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act.

We understand that we cannot expect a “perfect” bill, and that negotiation and compromise are an essential part of the process. All of us have histories of winning policy change campaigns that advance the interest and welfare for immigrant and all communities–from NYPD reform to workers rights to detention.  However, as immigrant communities, we cannot, in good conscience, support a bill that will tear apart families and communities, excludes millions of immigrants either from the outset or through the long and onerous process, and further criminalize our communities through an expanding system of detention, deportations, surveillance, and border militarization. S.B. 744 will effectively divide our communities.  The bill’s provisions will result in millions falling further into the cracks of inequality and the depths of fear. This bill doesn’t only keep in place many of the failures of the already broken immigration system, but in fact, expands upon them for generations to come.

Immigrant communities have been fighting for decades for a just, humane, inclusive, and truly “comprehensive” immigration reform. The current legislative and movement-building groundswell created a positive opening for discussions about our profoundly broken immigration system. Given that this rare opportunity will not come back again soon, many of us organized across the country to ensure that the reform proposals are fully inclusive and not set up for failure. Most importantly, the struggle for reform must be accountable to and include the voices of immigrants – the very people whose lives are at stake everyday in our jobs, in our neighborhoods, at the borders, in detention centers, and at every interaction with law enforcement.  Immigrant lives cannot be compromised for hollow ‘victories’ that do more harm than good, bipartisan or not.

On June 27, 2013, the Senate voted to pass its immigration bill with a bipartisan vote of 68 to 32. While the bill includes provisions that seem to benefit some segments of immigrant communities, we are disturbed by the many provisions that undermine the basic premise of a just, humane and inclusive “comprehensive” immigration reform:

1. S.B. 744 creates an onerous labyrinth of a gauntlet instead of a just a path to citizenship.  While the bill seeks to offer a path to citizenship, and allow the millions of immigrants to come out of the shadows and become a recognized part of the social fabric, the specific provisions place many “thorns on the road” by making the process overly complex, financially unaffordable for many, and with an excessively long waiting period of 10-20 years. As these provisions would exclude millions of immigrants, either from the outset or due to the various obstacles, we will continue to have a large population of immigrants who would become even more marginalized and excluded than the current situation.

2. S.B. 744 permanently separates and destroys families. Healthy communities are made up of healthy families, and we function at our best when surrounded and supported by our loved ones. Current provisions that exclude or limit the definitions of family, or the ability to bring over siblings or adult children, or the ability of deported family members to return, undermine these principles and leave behind broken and incomplete families and communities.

3. S.B. 744 exacerbates human rights violations and institutionalizes the terrorizing of communities. In the name of security, the bill commits to dramatically increasing militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, which comes at the expense of the everyday security of millions of individuals, families, and communities.

It would spend $46 billion to nearly double the number of border agents to 40,000, expand the use of drones, and construct around 700 miles of border fencing.  Moreover, the bill outlines the creation of an alarming new military-immigration profit complex only benefiting companies with billions of wasted dollars in contracts for domestic drones, national I.D. system & databases, surveillance, profiling, and border police. We cannot have “border security” if we do not address our global economic, trade, and political policies which force so many people to migrate in the first place. Failure to fix the root causes in much of our foreign policies has had devastating consequences on our borders for the last two decades, with thousands of lives lost, and billions of dollars wasted. The ambiguous border security “triggers” also leave room for abuse, and a promise of legalization that may never come.

4. S.B. 744 allocates billions of dollars for private corporations to profit off the inhumane detention and deportation of immigrants.  The many exceptions, and onerous requirements, in the path to citizenship set the stage for the massive expansion of the already devastating system of detentions and deportations of immigrants, which breaks apart our families and communities. The vested interests and input in the bill of the corporations that benefit from these policies is alarming.

5. S.B. 744 renders immigrant workers vulnerable to labor violations and modern-day slavery. The provisions of the bill that mandate various forms of continuous employment (such as exclusion if unemployed for more than 60 days during the provisional period of 10+ years) essentially place both immigrant workers and guest workers at the mercy and whims of their employers, and subject to abuse.  This is compounded by a new national E-verify that would give employers a greater advantage to control immigrant workers – not just in terms of the value and terms of employment but also of immigration status.  The E-verify program bolsters a new indentured worker system.

While we recognize that there are many immigrants who would benefit from the Senate bill, we also note that it excludes many other immigrants, often from the same family.  Moreover, the bill does not meet many of the basic needs and demands of immigrant-led organizations, workers, families, and youth from across the country. We have built these ‘bottomline’ principles of a truly “comprehensive” reform through years of direct consultations with thousands immigrants, undocumented low-wage workers, citizens, and youth from diverse national and ethnic origins. The bill, however, grossly prioritizes the interests and profits of businesses and corporations. It sets the stage for the social and economic control of workers, through the creation of a military-immigration profit complex, databases, expansion of detentions and deportations, and criminalization of immigrants. The Senate bill must be exposed and opposed for what it is — a hostile coercion of the aspirations, sacrifices and struggles of millions of immigrants who demand basic rights and dignity.

Due to a modicum of benefits for some immigrants, we also understand that we will not all agree as an immigrant rights movement on the value of this bill for our communities. Regardless of whether immigration reform passes or not, it is critical that we continue to build the long-term unity and power of immigrant people and workers, and to do it in solidarity with all workers, black communities, and others who have been engaged in the struggles for social and economic justice for decades. The decisions we make as leadership of communities and organizations must answer directly to the very people we struggle for, and build unity for the long-term movements that are genuinely successful in winning change.

Immigrant Communities in Action was founded in 2005 to allow genuine bottom-up, grassroots decision making by low-wage, immigrant people and to organize for real and just immigration reform in New York City and nationally.

 

ICA Members (2013):

AFSC Immigrant Rights Program

Damayan Migrant Workers Association

DRUM – Desis Rising Up and Moving

New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC

ROC-NY (Restaurant Opportunities Center)

Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan / Linking the Children of the Motherland

VAMOS Unidos – Street Vendors Mobilizing and Organizing in Solidarity


Partner members:
FIERCE
Humanist Party