Immigrant Rights

Each Fourth of July, our nation makes a big deal of immigrants who are becoming naturalized citizens.

This year, the Minneapolis Star Tribune observed the occasion with a little test of our knowledge of the facts about immigration – both "then" (in the good ol’ days) and now (when immigration is being defined by some as the greatest of threats to our nation).

They offer seven questions and ask you to choose the best answer. And the right answers are sometimes surprising – and enlightening.

As a sample, here’s one question – and we’ll even give you the answer if you promise to try the other six questions without peeking.

The question:

Until 1924, how many immigrants could come to the United States each year?

Answer:

A. The 1924 National Origins Act for the first time imposed broad immigration quotas.

Molly Ivins agrees with Presbyterian minister Eun-hyey Park, who wrote here 3 weeks ago that it’s really all about race.

Urgent Alert from the Presbyterian Washington Office

SUPPORT FAIR WAGES AND A PATH TO RESIDENCY FOR FARMWORKERS!
[5-17-06]

The Washington, DC based Rural Farm Coalition has prepared the following Urgent Action Alert and sample letter regarding the plight of farm workers in the current immigration debate. The Senate is currently debating an immigration bill and many, many, many amendments are being offered even as this message is being typed. We will not write about all of them , but have chosen a few key ones that severely challenge key concerns expressed in General Assembly policy. The Chambliss amendment would limit the protections in AgJOBS legislation. It is urgent that you call both your Senators and urge them to reject any amendments that would limit the protections in AgJOBS. You will find talking points in a document by Farmworker Justice Fund at the end of a letter below, that is being signed by many organizations and will go out on Friday You can use the letter and other material in you communications with your Senators. You can reach the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or go to www.senate.gov and search for your member by name, zip code or state. As always, the PresbyAction Center can be found on the web page of the Presbyterian Washington Office. Click here and enter your zip code in the GO box to the right.  If you have already contacted your Senators this week, please feel free to forward this information to someone who may not have.

We further urge you to study the immigration bills now pending, and to urge your Senators to support a final package that is closest to the Kennedy-McCain bill that was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The key point here is not just a guest worker plan, but a guest worker plan that allows for residency or a path to citizenship.

This email is about the farm worker concerns. In a separate email, I will send information about the immigrant detention issue. If negative amendments are passed that bring the Senate immigration bill too close to the House bill 4437 passed in December, then advocates are beginning to think that no bill is better then a severely compromised bill with harmful consequences.

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SUPPORT FAIR WAGES AND A PATH TO RESIDENCY FOR FARMWORKERS!

Action Alert: SIGN ON LETTER TO SUPPORT AgJOBS May 16, 2006

ISSUE: The Senate has now re-opened the immigration debate that faltered in April. The current bill under consideration is known as the Hagel-Martinez Compromise, S.2611. We have a number of concerns about this bill; however, as farmers, farmworkers and members of rural communities, we are especially troubled by the possibility of eroding protections and opportunities for farmworkers as they are now contained in the bill. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga) will propose two amendments in the upcoming week that could do just that.

The following letter describes the two amendments, one which would eliminate the path to citizenship for farmworkers currently in the United States, and the other which would eliminate wage protections for farmerworkers in the H-2A program, and urges Senators to vote against them. More information regarding these amendments can be found at the end of this alert.

The Senate is expected to finish this legislation before Memorial Day weekend, so the time to act is now. We are preparing a sign on letter for delivery to the Senate early next week, and are urging you also to call both of your Senators to request their support for Ag Jobs.

At the very end of this action alert, we have also attached a brief overview and analysis of the overall immigration packages that have been considered or passed in Congress. The bill passed by the House contains no AgJobs provisions and has other very detrimental features. We urge you to ask your Senators to support just immigration policies that recognize the critical contributions of immigrants to our workforce and society.

+++ TEXT OF THE SIGN-ON LETTER TO THE SENATE

May 16, 2006

Dear Senator,

As organizations of small farmers and farm workers concerned about the future of our rural communities, we the undersigned urge your support of the "AgJOBS" legislation found in Sections 611 - 619 of S.2611, the Hagel-Martinez Compromise on immigration currently being debated in the Senate.

The "AgJOBS" reforms are bipartisan, comprehensive and widely supported by both farmworker groups and agricultural businesses. We ask that they be retained in any final bill the Senate passes. Senator Chambliss of Georgia plans to submit amendments that would limit or eliminate two of the most important reforms contained in the AgJOBS provisions. First, he may seek to eliminate the earned adjustment provision, which allows agricultural workers to apply for residency by committing to five years of future agricultural work and the payment of a fine. While some parties opposed to the bill claim that it represents an amnesty, it is in fact a program through which workers legally and ethically earn their citizenship through years of productive work in the agricultural labor force.

Second, Senator Chambliss may attempt to abolish the adverse effect wage rate. This would diminish wage rates currently in place under the H-2A program and redefine the "prevailing wage," effectively opening the door for employers to pay their workers well below the federal minimum wage. We are concerned that removing this protection will drive down wages for both foreign born and American agricultural workers.

We support the reforms contained in the current version of AgJOBS. We request that you protect these long-awaited and carefully negotiated provisions by voting against amendments by Senator Chambliss or others that do not receive clear support of the Ag Jobs bill sponsors, Senators Larry Craig and Dianne Feinstein.

As you vote on the larger immigration package, we further urge you to work for a package that is closest to the McCain- Kennedy package as passed by the Judiciary Committee.

Sincerely,

Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural, Washington, DC

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND TALKING POINTS FROM FARMWORKER JUSTICE FUND

As the debate rumbles on in the U.S. Senate over immigration reform, there are reports that the phone and e-mail messages going to Senators are running 20 to 1 again reform.

If you haven’t sent a message yet to your senators, this week is the time to do it. If you have, this is the time to do it again, since the bills have been changing as the days pass.

See his blog, posted today, May 3, 2006 -- and we're presenting his comments in full right here.   [5-3-06]

Friends,

With all of the energy around the immigration debate at the moment, many have asked for my opinion. I thought I would post a response I wrote to someone this morning. This is a very cursory reflection,

If you are Presbyterian, and interested in becoming a positive part of the immigration conversation in our church, please send an email to Dana at dages@ctr.pcusa.org to ask for an invitation to participate in the Immigration network in the PC(USA).

So here are some quick thoughts that are based on my border experience over the last eighteen years:

First, the unspoken conversation underlying our broken immigration policy is our flawed trade policy. Until we create trade policy that makes a legitimate attempt to build up the infrastructure, local economies, and job opportunities that provide a genuine future in Latin American countries with whom we would like to trade, we will continue to see a border and an immigration crisis here in the U.S.

Current trade policy is designed to promote economic growth for multinational corporations by dropping trade tariffs, but the result is a policy that sucks most of the economic resources out of the Latin American country because the driving motivator for the corporations is always going to be access to cheap labor and cheap natural resources. The problem, of course, is that the money leaves the communities, and although the workers often do get a steady paycheck, none of the profits remain to be re-invested in the community itself. (Note that this is no different than the arguments taking place in many of our communities about "big-box stores" that wipe out local businesses.)

Though no one has really asked me, it seem to me that the elegant solution would be to insist that if we sign a trade agreement with any country, we will concurrently sign legislation allowing the free and open movement of workers back and forth between our country and theirs. (Think about the way it currently works between states in the U.S.) I would note that this is not only good theology, it's also Capitalism 101. The ability of the worker to move for a better job is supposed to create a pressure that will drive up wages, and a "rising tide will lift all boats." That's not what's going on with trade policy we're developing in our hemisphere, where we allow capital and products to cross borders, but not workers.

Some folks respond that then "everyone would come here." That’s probably true, which suggests that we would be much more intentional about designing trade legislation designed to create sustainable communities from which the immigrants are originating, offering them a legitimate choice to stay where they are because they can actually support their families without migrating to do so.

Second, we could solve many of our immigration problems very quickly with a good, readily accessible visa program for any Mexican or Central American who shows up at our border with a passport and a clean bill of health. As far as I'm concerned, I'd even be willing to see a hefty fee of $500 to $1,000 to cover administrative costs, since migrants are typically mortgaging everything they own or entering into indentured servitude to pay several times that to smugglers in order to get across the border right now. Once those folks are fully documented, it means that they are paying taxes. This is how we solve a serious problem of lack of infrastructure that exists in many communities that have been overwhelmed by undocumented migrants. If we want hospitals, schools, community security and transportation systems that create good quality of life in our communities, the answer is to use the tax base to put those systems in place, the same we our country has been doing that for decades.

Further, the church community has continually insisted, and will continue to insist, that any documentation program must provide the ability to reunite families, allow workers the ability to move independently to look for work (so that they don’t become a captive, "slave" labor force for an employer who can threaten them with deportation), and the ability to work toward citizenship if they are solid members of the community.

Finally, until these macro problems are solved, churches must find out where migrants are and support them. To be without documents in our country today is to be at extreme risk. It will take great courage and serious commitment for our churches to stand against the "anti-immigrant" lunacy that currently is infecting our country and insist that we will live the gospel values of welcoming the stranger and caring for the dispossessed.

I hope that you, like I, have been moved by the sight of several million people who have been demonstrating peacefully over the past few months to let us know that they are here, they are doing critical work this country depends on, and they only desire to be full and productive members of our community.

Peace to you,

Rick

Some visitors to this site have asked for help in finding material that deals with immigration issues from a faith perspective. 

It begins:

We, the undersigned faith-based leaders and organizations, join together to call upon President Bush and our elected officials in Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation that establishes a safe and humane immigration system consistent with our values. Our diverse faith traditions teach us to welcome our brothers and sisters with love and compassion.

The Hebrew Bible tells us: "The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Leviticus 19:33-34)." In the New Testament, Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger (cf. Matthew 25:35), for "what you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me (Matthew 25:40)." The Qur'an tells us that we should "serve God…and do good to…orphans, those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer that you meet, [and those who have nothing] (4:36)."

We call for immigration reform because each day in our congregations, service programs, health-care facilities, and schools we witness the human consequences of an outmoded system. We see and hear the suffering of immigrant families who have lost loved ones to death in the desert or immigrants themselves who have experienced exploitation in the workplace or abuse at the hands of unscrupulous smugglers and others. In our view, changes to the U.S. legal immigration system would help put an end to this suffering, which offends the dignity of all human beings.      The whole document >>

The 211th General Assembly (1999):

a. Reaffirm[s] the guiding theological and ethical principles contained in the historical review of Presbyterian policy on immigration and refugee issues, and commit to rediscover its identity as a church of the stranger.

(1) Christians are obligated by the loving will of God to seek to ensure that the basic needs of persons for food, clothes, shelter and safety are met (Matt. 25-35-40).

(2) Christians believe in the intrinsic worth of each human as a person made in the image of God.

(3) The Christian confession of Jesus Christ as Lord transforms "strangers" into neighbors who are welcomed into our communities.

(4) Churches are called to ministry with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, and to public witness on their behalf.

(5) Christians have the responsibility to challenge and to shape government policy regarding refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.

(6) Love of neighbor requires Christians to seek justice for refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.

(7) Faithfulness to Christ means Christians always live in tension with national values and policies.

(8) Christians may affirm certain values in national and international life as consistent with their theological vision of human community.

b. Reaffirm[s] the guiding policy principles contained in the historical review of Presbyterian policy on immigration and refugee issues and to utilize them to rediscover its identity as a church of the stranger.

(1) Christians should engage in pastoral, compassionate, educational, and prophetic ministries with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.

(2) The provision of sanctuary for asylum seekers may be an appropriate moral response for churches even though the Untied States government regards this witness as illegal.

(3) Churches should vigorously advocate the church's right to religious freedom in their ministries with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.

(4) Refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants should be treated humanely and justly in government policies and in our communities.

(5) The United States should respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and adhere to international laws and accords that seek to implement standards of universal human rights.

(6) Christians should seek the elimination of discrimination and racism from government policies and community responses.

(7) The United States government should ensure that the constitutional rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants to due process of law are protected.

(8) Sovereign nations should exercise their authority to regulate immigration with a presumption toward generosity rather than restrictiveness.

(9) The United States should open jobs to neighbors with a strong and continuing historical connection who need and want to work so long as there are jobs available and the poor already residing in the United States are not further disadvantaged.

(10) Restrictions on immigration should be enforced humanely.

(11) The United States government should make the causes of human displacement a major priority in United States foreign policy.

c. Direct[s] the General Assembly Council, through its Ministries Divisions, to coordinate the various initiatives for ministry with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers by:

(1) Urging sessions and presbyteries to develop new approaches to ministry with new neighbors and to share those models that are successful in order to be mentors and models for others; and encouraging presbyteries and synods as the locus of support to congregations and individuals called into caring ministry with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

(3) Encouraging Presbyterians to express pastoral concerns and prayers for those whose[sic] service[sic] in the Immigration and Naturalization Service, acknowledging that they often find themselves faced with difficult, morally ambiguous, and even morally indefensible situations in the enforcement of U.S. immigration policy.

(4) Identifying and/or developing resources for pastoral care with asylum seekers and immigrants who are in detention.

d. Reaffirm[s] the 209th General Assembly (1997) Resolution on "Welfare and Poverty" policy on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, urge[s] presbyteries and congregations to respond to the plight of refugees and immigrants during the next year when public assistance ends, and to advocate publicly on their behalf so that their basic needs will be met.

e. Reaffirm[s] the consistent witness of General Assemblies on behalf of due process in legal proceedings and urge[s] Presbyterians, presbyteries, and congregations to engage in advocacy efforts to ensure that foreigners in the United States have the same legal protections that citizens enjoy, including the right to legal counsel.

f. Advocate[s] for the repeal of those sections of the 1996 immigration law that provide for the expedited removal of asylum seekers and immigrants without a full hearing, including the right of appeals, urging presbyteries and sessions to do similar advocacy. Until these sections are repealed, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) of the United States government should cooperate with efforts to monitor independently the way "expedited removal" is applied.

g. Advocate[s] for the repeal of those sections of the 1996 immigration law that removes review of that law and its administration from the jurisdiction of immigration judges and the federal courts, urging presbyteries and sessions to similar advocacy.

h. Oppose[s] the routine use of detention as an enforcement tool in addressing common immigration violations, noting the particular hardship this puts on women and children, urging presbyteries and sessions to similar advocacy.

i. Advocate[s] for use of the credible fear standard for releasing asylum seekers from detention, and assuring a more speedy adjudication to reduce unreasonably lengthy stays in detention, urging presbyteries and sessions to do similar advocacy. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) should ensure asylum seekers are not held in local jails, nor detained with local criminals, and that they are provided humane conditions including adequate and appropriate food, personal treatment, medical care, prompt access to legal help, family, and friends.

j. Urge[s] that numerical limits used by the United States on allowing adjudicated asylum seekers adjust to a legal permanent residence (LPR) status be lifted, urging presbyteries and sessions to do similar advocacy.

k. Urge[s] restoration of a more generous admission of refugees, giving particular attention to the annual report of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and ensuring that those refugees identified and screened as being in urgent need of resettlement (rescue) be a priority for United States admissions, urging presbyteries and sessions to do similar advocacy.

l. Advocate[s] for the repeal of sections of the 1996 immigration law that require state and local governments, and publicly funded institutions and programs (such as hospitals, battered women's shelters, WIC, church feeding programs) to report undocumented persons to the INS, urging presbyteries and sessions to do similar advocacy. The 211th General Assembly (1999) further calls on Christians who are under such reporting requirements to weigh in their conscience the claims of this requirement against the biblical injunction to shelter and welcome the stranger.

m. Advocate[s] for review of the sections of the 1996 immigration law that defined misdemeanors as felonies for purposes of deportation and removed the possibility of an immigration judge granting a discretionary waiver from deportation based on a person's whole case, urging presbyteries and sessions to do similar advocacy. The 211th General Assembly (1999) affirms that Christian belief demands that we make an allowance for atonement and redemption of those who have made a mistake but are working to overcome it.

n. Express[es] concern and encourage study of the militarization of our nation's borders for the purpose of dealing with immigration.

Urgent Alert from the Washington Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

PresbyAction Network: Immigration Alert

Immigration: Politics Trumps Policy
[4-11-06]

Take Action!

The following update is from the National Immigration Forum.

Further demonstrations continue around the country in the wake of Senate not voting last week. April 10th Rallies have been called for in various locations. Go to http://www.april10.org to see what continuing events may be happening in your locality. This site will list future events as well. Your Members of Congress are at home on recess for two weeks. Visit them in their district offices.

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Impasse: Politics Again Trumps Policy

[April 7, 2006] Earlier today, a tentative agreement on comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the Senate fell apart, and the senate failed to take action before adjourning for a two-week recess.

Yesterday, Senate leaders of both parties, and Senators who have played a key role in shepherding comprehensive reform through the Committee process, came together around a compromise initiated by Senators Martinez (R-FL) and Hagel (R-NE). The compromise policy proposal would have preserved much of the Judiciary Committee bill. With respect to legalization, the compromise proposal would have led to approximately 10 million undocumented immigrants getting permanent residence within 6 to 8 years. Those who have been here for five years or more, would be offered a direct and multi-step process to permanent residence. Persons who had been in the U.S. prior to January 7, 2004, but less than five years, would have to "touch base" outside the country, but will be able to come back in immediately and get on track for permanent residence within eight years. (Though they have to "touch base" outside of the country, paperwork will be done in the U.S.) Those here since January 7, 2004, would not be eligible for legalization, but would not be barred from the temporary worker program, with its own path to eventual citizenship for those who want to stay.

Details of the process for pushing the agreement forward were the sticking point. While restrictionist Senators wanted to offer a series of amendments to weaken or gut the agreement, there was a sufficient bi-partisan coalition of Senators to defend the agreement against the amendments of obstructionists. For varying reasons, it was the leadership of both parties, and procedures in the Senate which make it easy for a handful of Senators to prevent the Senate from getting things done, that has halted progress towards comprehensive immigration reform for now.

What's Next?

Congress is out for two weeks. The issue is not going away. Monday, there will be demonstrations in Washington and across the country. The public is demanding that Congress take action. While Senators are home for this two-week recess, you should continue to contact them and let them know it is important for the Senate to get back to the business of reforming our immigration laws.

For information on activities planned for April 10, see: http://www.april10.org

It is not clear what the next step in the Senate will be at this point. But let's review for a moment where we've come in the last few weeks. Three weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee was slowly slogging through dozens of amendments to further restrict the due process rights of immigrants on an underlying bill which already included harshly punitive enforcement provisions and nothing better than permanent underclass status for undocumented immigrants. Senator Frist, in control of the Senate schedule, was threatening to bring his own bill to the Senate floor that had nothing but enforcement for the undocumented. Two weeks ago, there was a 12 - 5 bipartisan vote in the Judiciary Committee to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants in this country. Yesterday, a bi-partisan coalition came together behind a compromise that would have legalized 10 million undocumented immigrants, and increased visas for family- and employment-based immigration. We are making progress, and we must lift up the civil rights and due process issues ("Title II") to push for needed changes. We have a terrific coalition.

The next step may well depend on what happens in the next two weeks around the country.

Need help sending e-mail to your Members of Congress? Go to our e-mail message service, at http://capwiz.com/pcusa/dbq/officials , insert your Zip Code (click "Go"), then click on the button under their name to e-mail them.

Published by the Stewardship of Public Life (SPL) advocacy program of the Washington Office,
Presbyterian Church (USA), 100 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, D.C. 20002, (202) 543-1126, www.pcusa.org/washington.

For more information about the content of this article, please e-mail Elenora Giddings Ivory at eivory@ctr.pcusa.org. If you are not a member of SPL but would like to be, please click here.