There has been a lot of talk recently about what might be included in an immigration reform bill. Will there be a legalization/amnesty/forgiveness of “lawbreakers” rule? Will there be an expansion of employment based and family based immigrant visa numbers to solve the economically devastating backlogs we currently deal with? Will there be a mandatory E-Verify component? Will there be an interior enforcement focus? Will there be even more fences?
The topic that seems to be lost in all this speculation is something I consider to be the overriding component of reform–the Key to holding a reform package together. I am speaking, of course, of Due Process Restoration. Anyone who deals with immigrants for any length of time is intimately familiar with the disaster that is our immigration enforcement system. It is not just that previous administrations have done a horrific job at the enforcement that should have been taking place, but rather, the missing component to that enforcement. When is the last time an ICE officer worried about Due Process considerations? What is really destroying immigrant families–how about 212(a)(9)(B) and (C)? What about the concept of “civil” detention in real jails with real criminals for non-criminal immigrants? What about the detention of Asylum Seekers? What about the ludicrous requirements of REAL ID for asylum seekers?
These are all only a few of the regular violations of concepts most American hold sacred. When you tell the ‘average’ American about the system immigrants actually have to deal with, most are appropriately appalled. It is to those Americans that we must speak. I believe that if Senator Schumer has the courage to include Due Process Restoration in his “Comprehensive” immigration reform bill, it will be tragically necessary for us to defend these Due Process provisions of the reform package.
Take a look at this video, and sign up to support including Due Process Restoration in a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6200660&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Restore Fairness: bring back due process to the immigration system from Breakthrough on Vimeo.