Civil Rights Coalition Pushes for Comprehensive Immigration Reform; Decries Frist's Divisive Bill
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 3/22/2006
With the debate in Congress over immigration reform heating up, the nation's oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition is calling on Congress to fix the nation's broken immigration policies with legislation that ensures that enforcement is conducted in a "sensible, humanitarian manner.""Immigrants play important roles in American life. Congress must protect the civil and human rights of all people in the United States as it reforms our broken immigration system," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). "Instead, with measures like H.R. 4437, Congress appears to be heading down a dangerous and discriminatory path."
In a statement issued March 15, LCCR spelled out principles it believed necessary to undertake in order to make comprehensive, fair immigration reform a reality.
The principles address the need for a path to permanent residency for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States; fair immigration enforcement policies; family reunification and reduction of visa backlogs; reforms of harsh immigration laws governing detention and deportation; and a meaningful way to meet the future flow of immigrant workers.
On the matter of immigration enforcement, LCCR pointed out that "any proposal that would criminalize undocumented immigrants...or penalize anyone for providing humanitarian assistance to their fellow human beings must be strongly opposed."
LCCR's principles build on the 2004 report of its sister organization, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, "American Justice Through Immigrants' Eyes," which criticized immigration reform laws enacted in 1996 that created a "two-tier system of justice that singles out one segment of society for less favorable treatment."
Recent legislative developments demonstrate how the question of dealing with the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States has continued to expose a deep division in the Republican Party.
On March 16, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R. Tenn., introduced a restrictionist immigration bill, after giving the Senate Judiciary Committee until March 27 to complete its work in marking up a competing, more balanced proposal. The Judiciary Committee has been poring over the "Chairman's mark" draft legislation, trying to achieve bipartisan consensus on controversial issues like enforcement and President Bush's proposed guest-worker program.
LCCR promptly criticized the introduction of Frist's bill.
"The civil rights community is surprised that Senator Frist would try to bypass the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is working in good faith to produce a bipartisan and comprehensive immigration bill," said LCCR's Henderson.
Frist's bill would increase the number of border guards, create a fence along the Mexican border, and criminalize millions of illegal immigrants in the States. The bill does not have any guest worker program or provide immigrants who are already here a chance to legalize their status.
"This is not a bill that reflects positively on a nation built by immigrants," said Henderson.
