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Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Posted on Jun 12 2019

(For a printable version of this Fact Sheet, click here.)

What is Comprehensive Immigration Reform?
Our current immigration system no longer serves the interests of the nation. Case processing times have doubled in the past two years and immigration court backlogs have reached nearly a million cases. Temporary and permanent immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, face impossible bureaucratic hurdles and are vulnerable to exploitation. Millions of people who have worked and built homes and families in the United States for decades live in daily fear of deportation. We need a complete overhaul of the immigration system: Comprehensive Immigration reform.

Our immigration system must be fixed in a way that reflects our values and faces the challenges of the 21st century. By Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), we mean a package of reforms that includes:

• Creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants;
• Keeping families together and reunifying families separated by the immigration system;
• Implementing a system of temporary and permanent work visas that prioritizes protection of immigrant workers, while meeting the needs of U.S. employers and economy;
• Protecting and welcoming refugees and asylum seekers;
• Defending due process for all people.

Pathway to Citizenship: DREAMers and people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) must have a pathway to citizenship. There must also be a pathway for undocumented immigrants of all ages who have lived here for years. We cannot afford to lose these valuable members of our communities.

Families: The backlog for family-based visas has kept spouses, parents and children, and siblings apart for years. CIR must provide relief for the people currently on waiting lists and a better system for family reunification in the future. Family-based immigration increases human capital and provides an economic benefit to the country. Family visa categories must be updated to explicitly include same-sex couples and their family members.

Employment: Immigrant workers include STEM workers with advanced academic degrees, nurses and health care workers, agricultural workers, construction workers, and workers contributing to the economy in just about every imaginable category. Some immigrant workers want to come here for seasonal work and return to their home countries, and some want to remain here permanently and become citizens. For all of these workers and for their employers, CIR means processes that protect workers’ rights and that allow movement of workers to fill the needs of the U.S. economy.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers: CIR must clarify that “particular social group” in the asylum context includes women fleeing domestic violence, LGBTQI people, and those fleeing gang activity when the home country is unable or unwilling to protect them from harm

Due Process: Due process includes adjustment of status inside the United States rather than requiring exit and return, and an increase in personnel at embassies and within USCIS to facilitate prompt processing of visas, petitions for adjustment of status, naturalization, and all other cases without the current lengthy administrative delays.

Due process means an independent immigration court system.

Due process also means an end to the presumption of detention for immigrants awaiting a court hearing, and minimization of detention in immigration cases. Data shows that immigrants who are released with a court date overwhelmingly do show up for that court hearing.

At the border, due process requires prompt and humane processing of immigrants apprehended by CBP, including provision of food, shelter, and medical care, and access to legal representation.

Overall, the changes in Comprehensive Immigration Reform embody an attitude toward immigrants that is compassionate and welcoming, rather than punitive and hostile.