The issue of Immigration to the U.S. has become increasingly more complicated, and more precarious, in this post-9/11 era. With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the beefing up of the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Immigrants find many more roadblocks than ever before to gaining citizenship, decent employment, fair housing, access to healthcare and education, and even something as simple as a legitimate drivers license along with vehicle ownership and insurance. Our legal immigration process can take, at best, 6 years, and in some extreme cases, up to 28 years to complete. And even then, after all those years of waiting, many still cannot gain citizenship. Spouses, minor children and parents of U.S. citizens have the easiest route to citizenship, while those who are siblings of U.S. citizens have the longest wait.
Although the government’s counterterrorism efforts have had the most negative impact on Muslims and people of Arab descent, many of the newly-enacted policies have had a detrimental effect on undocumented Immigrants as a whole. These strategies have even had adverse effects on those who are U.S. citizens who have been affected because they are mistaken for Immigrants or because their Immigrant family members have been targeted. As a result, the civil liberties of these people have been seriously undermined, and many would agree that there have been infringements on the civil rights of all people who call the U.S. their home, since 9/11.
Most unfair, and certainly calculated, are the ICE raids and sweeps, apt to occur at trigger sites such as factories, day laborer sites, and apartment complexes. Although routine traffic and police stops can also trigger ICE action. When caught up in a raid or sweep, folks are separated from their families, placed in detention, must provide for their own legal counsel, and face eventual deportation. In order to help families be prepared for something like this to happen, the Office of Immigration Issues with the Presbyterian Church in Louisville, KY provides a comprehensive Family Care Plan online (pcusa.org) that can be completed with undocumented families who are concerned with their rights being compromised and what might happen to their children, as well as their personal property, should they be forced to enter into the deportation process. Completing this packet with undocumented friends is a great way to help support them should they ever be detained because of their immigration status.
According to U.S. law, an Immigrant is a foreign-born individual who has been admitted to reside permanently in the U.S. as a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR). There are three ways to get admitted to permanently live in the U.S.: through family-sponsored and employment-based immigration, or by winning a visa in the annual diversity visa lottery. This lottery system is only open to Immigrants of certain countries, and is becoming increasingly limited in availability. Someone seeking Refugee or asylum status is a person who seeks protection on the grounds that they fear persecution in their homeland by proving they have a well-founded fear on the basis of one of the following grounds: race, religion, membership in a social group, political opinion, or national origin. Once approved, a Refugee or Asylee can apply for LPR status after one year.
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) indicates that in recent years there has been much legislation and other activity at the state level imposing harsh restrictions specifically on immigrants’ access to state-issued driver’s licenses and identification documents. These proposals go well beyond denying undocumented Immigrants access to driver’s licenses and have the potential to exclude legal Immigrants and even U.S. citizens from state-issued identification documents. Moreover, they are of great concern because they prohibit drivers from being properly licensed and insured, discriminate against Immigrants and other groups, and make entire communities less safe. The NCLR believes that a state-issued driver’s license should be reliable proof of an individual’s identity and proof of authorization to drive a motor vehicle; it should not be tied to an individual’s immigration status. There are legitimate and sound avenues for individuals to prove identity which would allow state Departments of Motor Vehicles to fulfill their mission of ensuring safe roads without creating new licensing requirements that would make the driver’s license a de facto proof of legal residency in the U.S.
Even the most basic variety of reasons Immigrants come to the U.S., including stable employment for a fair wage, better housing, medical care and education than they might find in their home country, and to reunite with other family members who immigrated to the U.S. before they did, are becoming mere illusions because of the current fear-based policies and practices of our nation. Nearly all are good people, but they are often looked upon and treated as if they were criminals of the worst kind, just for acting on their strong desire to make a better life for themselves and their families.
Other reasons Immigrants come to the U.S. are based in more complex issues, such as the ramifications of the North American Fair Trade Agreements (NAFTA). Since NAFTA took effect, wages in Mexico have stagnated and are even on the decline in some industries, subsidized grain has led to the dislocation of over a million corn farmers, undocumented migration from Mexico has more than doubled and its workers risk their lives to cross over into the U.S. just to find some sort of viable employment to support their families. Hundreds of thousands of people have died trying to cross the desert between Mexico and the U.S. And as longer stretches of the border are reinforced with greater military presence and miles and miles of fence made of welded steel equipped with stadium lighting, in some areas, more folks are forced into much more dangerous desert regions than ever before. The U.S. eventual domination of the global corn export market and increased ethanol consumption will surely further harm the world’s most vulnerable farmers, thereby continuing to fuel migration to the U.S.
Myths abound surrounding the issue of immigration. There have been ascertains that folks who come to the U.S. enroll in public assistance programs, do not pay taxes, send all their money back to family members in their home county, take jobs and opportunities away from Americans, and are a significant drain on our economy. When in fact, many Immigrants come to the U.S. to work and reunite with family members, do pay taxes (income, property and sales, including local, state and federal), and contribute significant revenues to local, state and federal governments. Often, Immigrants accept jobs that many others do not want and are paid significantly less than their American counterparts, and in some cases they also fill jobs in key sectors, start their own businesses, and contribute to the U.S. economy in countless ways.
In April of 2005, the New York Times published an article that illustrated some of the issues of undocumented workers, the significant amount of money they contribute in the employment taxes that they and their employers pay to the U.S. government, and how this system actually bolsters the U.S. economy with billions of dollars annually:
Since illegally crossing the Mexican border into the United States six years ago, Ángel Martínez has done backbreaking work, harvesting asparagus, pruning grapevines and picking the ripe fruit. More recently, he has also washed trucks, often working as much as 70 hours a week, earning $8.50 to $12.75 an hour. Not surprisingly, Mr. Martínez, 28, has not given much thought to Social Security's long-term financial problems. But Mr. Martínez - who comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hiked for two days through the desert to enter the United States near Tecate, some 20 miles east of Tijuana - contributes more than most Americans to the solvency of the nation's public retirement system. Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits. He belongs to a big club. As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so illegal Immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year. While it has been evident for years that illegal Immigrants pay a variety of taxes, the extent of their contributions to Social Security is striking: the money added up to about 10 percent of last year's surplus - the difference between what the system currently receives in payroll taxes and what it doles out in pension benefits. Moreover, the money paid by illegal workers and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections.
One of the most promising programs created to address these issues in a broad sense is called Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). Proponents of CIR emphasize that this must include a sensible, compassionate and just path to citizenship for most of the undocumented living in the U.S.; provide workplace protections and living wages for all workers in the U.S.; honor and respect the dignity of family unity; create humane border policies; demand a moratorium on workplace raids until federal CIR is enacted. These mandates are being promoted in the mid-west by an organization based in Kansas City , Missouri called the Immigrant Justice Advocacy Movement (IJAM), associated with the New Sanctuary Movement.
The NCLR also stands firmly behind CIR. They state that the current U.S. immigration system is in need of fundamental reform. They believe that real reform must establish policies that address the needs of the country now and in the future. Congressional failure to enact reform has led to piecemeal state and local measures that are detrimental to the well-being and safety of Hispanic and sister communities. The harsh tone of the immigration debate in recent years has created an environment of intolerance against immigrants, regardless of immigration status, and against Latinos in general. They claim that our broken system has led to a burgeoning undocumented population whose status makes it easier for them to be preyed upon and harder to integrate into American society. Unscrupulous employers readily exploit undocumented workers, dysfunctional policies keep families apart and legal workers out, and costly enforcement strategies terrorize communities, introducing greater chaos into an already broken system. Federal leadership is required to address these failed policies and ensure that our treatment of Immigrants is aligned with America's best values and traditions.
Some of the most important reasons for enacting CIR are the injustices and vulnerabilities these people experience. According to the Presbyterian Church, in a publication calling for CIR, undocumented Immigrants constitute an underground labor force. The workers must keep a very low profile; otherwise they might be exposed and subject to deportation. They cannot afford to confront unjust treatment by employers, and they have virtually no rights they can appeal to in order to pursue cases of mistreatment. Yet they are working. They are contributing their labor, paying their taxes, and purchasing goods. The vast majority are law abiding. Those with children send them to schools. Family values are exceedingly important to them.
Undocumented workers often fill particularly “undesirable” jobs that current residents avoid. They are paid at the lowest end of the wage scale. Some employers take advantage of the workers’ legal vulnerability by threats, imposing excessive demands and withholding portions of even their minimal wages.
Workers are often separated from their families with little chance to be reunited. Many are subjected to implicit as well as explicit racism. They have access to emergency health care but not long-term treatment, even though they may have injuries related to their jobs. They cannot organize with others to protest unjust treatment or to petition for changes in their work situation. They do not receive benefits that other workers receive. Their undocumented status puts them at considerable jeopardy and in abject subordination, even as they are doing productive labor and contributing to the U.S. economy.
One crucial practice of justice is to correct the abuses occurring in our midst. The awful conditions that are experienced by undocumented workers are not intolerable to them because they are desperate for the income. But these abuses should be regarded as intolerable by others of us. Undocumented workers are put in the position of a servant class. Michael Walzer, a political philosopher, asserts that to use a person’s labor without making available the full rights of citizens is akin to tyranny.
The Presbyterian Church goes on to say that undocumented Immigrants bring a great deal that is positive to our communities. This needs to be acknowledged and affirmed as we consider immigration reform. It is well known that Immigrants are hard working risk-takers who have endured a great deal to immigrate to the U.S. It is often extraordinary what these Immigrants have to deal with in this new land. Yet they persist with tenacity and courage in the face of great difficulties that would discourage many of the rest of us. They bring the gifts of their identities and cultures, which often include prevailing through experiences of war, persecution and tyranny.
Persons who have been living in our communities and participating in a responsible way are, morally speaking, already members of our society. Membership is at its heart relational in character. When persons live and work as citizens do, they are in fact members even if their relationship to the community has not been formally established. The de facto membership of undocumented Immigrants should be acknowledged and legalized.
Ultimately, one must look to biblical mandates as the ultimate reason for CIR. We must ask ourselves how we can respond to this issue in the most Christ-like manner. In Ephesians 2:19 we read, “You are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God”. Matthew 25: 44 addresses hospitality to the stranger with the words, “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?” The gifts of the stranger are addressed in Matthew 25:21-28. Justice as the distribution of power and resources is illustrated in Micah 6:8 and Amos 5:24. Peace, security and reconciliation are discussed in Matthew 10:39, Psalm 118:9 and Ephesians 2:13-18. A Christian perspective on immigration challenges us, above all, to love immigrants, to establish justice for them, and to seek to be reconciled with them in a new and transformed community.
Additionally, there are two bills that need our support right now: 1) the Child Protection Act which gives immigration judges the discretion to do what is right for citizen children in deportation cases; 2) The DREAM Act which opens doors to education and citizenship for undocumented youths who are completing high school and seeking to be integrated into US society. Please call and write your representatives to support these initiatives.
And finally, some Immigrant facts most integral to this issue, according to IJAM, are that there are 3.1 million U.S. citizen children who have at least one undocumented parent, Immigrant deaths on the U.S./Mexico border increased 21% from 2006 to 2007, 63% of all hate crimes committed in 2007 were against Latinos, and that the undocumented create a fiscal net benefit to the U.S. economy. Detention Watch Network states that by the end of 2009, the U.S. government will hold over 440,000 people in immigration custody – more than triple the number of people in detention just ten years ago – in a hodgepodge of approximately 400 facilities at an annual cost of more than $1.7 billion. And the NCLR affirms that current immigration policy regime is broken and has failed to regulate the flow of migrants to the U.S. As a result, there are now approximately 9.3 million undocumented Immigrants living and working in the U.S., many families remain separated for years waiting for visas, and deaths along the border have reached alarming rates. All three organizations agree that CIR is necessary to fix our broken immigration system. (Written Spring 2009)
