Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform letter

March 9, 2007

Dear President Bush and Members of Congress,

As the debate on immigration reform begins in earnest in the 110th Congress,
the undersigned organizations urge you in the strongest possible terms
to enact workable comprehensive immigration reform this year. Our message
is simple: get it done, do it right, and make it work.

Immigrant workers and families are desperate for real reform, as are
American workers who want a level playing field and decent employers
who want a legal workforce. State and local governments are frustrated
that politicians in Washington produce more talk than action on a priority
only federal policy makers can realistically address. The public is tired
of partisan posturing and finger pointing. They want their leaders to lead,
to solve tough problems on a bipartisan basis, and to produce results,
not excuses.

Workable comprehensive immigration reform is the solution.
Enforcement-only efforts have not worked in the past and will not work
in the future. Rounding up or attempting to force out 12 million
undocumented immigrants is neither feasible nor desirable. Most
undocumented immigrants live in families, most have been here
for more than five years, and as workers they fill one out of every
20 jobs in the United States. Fixing our broken immigration
system requires a broader approach, a strategy that aims to replace an
unregulated, chaotic, and abusive system with a controlled, limited,
and legal system.

Attached are principles that have long guided our work. These will
continue to serve as our anchor during the upcoming legislative debate
and as the basis for assessing legislative proposals. Our principles are
about restoring the rule of law, providing a path to earned citizenship,
protecting immigrant and American workers alike, reuniting families,
respecting due process, and helping newcomers become new Americans while
helping the communities in which they settle. This combination enacted
together will work to bring immigrants out of the shadows and under a
realistic regulatory regime. An effectively reformed immigration system
will serve national interests by supporting economic growth, social mobility,
strong families, labor rights, civil rights, political rights, and law and order.

On one particular component the future flow of needed workers we want
to make our position clear. The undersigned organizations oppose new guest
worker programs. Instead, we support new worker visas with an earned path
to citizenship. Work-and-return guest worker programs that tie workers to
individual employers and compel workers to leave the country when their
short-term visa expires simply will not work. When the immigration status
of workers and their right to stay in the country depends on an employer,
the resulting imbalance of power inevitably fosters exploitation. This, in turn,
undercuts the wages and working conditions of native-born and immigrant
low-wage workers alike. What we do support is a break the mold new worker
visa program, one that guarantees needed immigrant workers renewable
long-term visas, full labor rights, the right to change jobs, wage protections,
the right to join a union, the right to be with close family members, the
protection of constitutional rights, and the realistic option of a path to
earned citizenship.

We also believe that workable comprehensive immigration reform
must serve the interests of native-born workers. In addition to eliminating
the perverse effects of our broken immigration system on native-born
workers, we need to address the needs of unemployed or underemployed
American workers by strengthening the reach and effectiveness of job
programs and anti-discrimination measures in order to improve skills
training and access to jobs.

Finally, let us never forget that the immigration reform debate is about
real people. Undocumented immigrants live in our communities, have
loving families, work hard, pay taxes, and believe deeply in the American
Dream. They bus tables, clean buildings, cook food, care for children,
tend gardens, tend to the elderly, construct houses, clean hotel rooms,
pick crops, produce food, and so much more. They have voted with their
feet to be here. Many have risked their lives in the process of getting here.
And far too many have died horrible deaths in the desert
seeking only a better life for their families.

Immigrant workers and families want to be here with legal immigration
status. Requirements that include paying a fine, studying English, and
going to the back of the line are not a problem as long as the process
is workable and there is a line for earned citizenship to get into.
And that line cannot keep people in legal limbo
or create huge backlogs that would deter people from coming forward or
from becoming new Americans. Immigrants in the U.S. want to be accepted
and recognized for their contributions, and are fully prepared to assume
both the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The signs in last year's
marches said it so well and so powerfully: We Are America.

But this debate is also about who we are. As a nation, we are at our best
when we overcome us vs. them fears to forge unity out of our diversity.
As a nation we are at our best when we live up to the ideals of opportunity
for all, equal treatment under the law, and basic fairness. As a nation,
it is time to solve this problem with a smart and practical comprehensive
immigration reform bill that will make our country stronger, safer, and
prouder.

JALSA joined organizations from many different communities
signing onto this letter