WHAT'S NEW
Immigration Raids are not a Substitute for Immigration Reform
HIAS strongly believes that increased immigration raids will not solve the problem of undocumented immigration, and that the primary impact of raids is the trauma and hardship they create for undocumented immigrants and their families. The increase and severity of ICE raids of homes and workplaces only underscores the absolute ineffectiveness of current U.S. immigration policy and the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform.
Click Here to view HIAS' Policy Resolution on Raids
Click Here to view HIAS' Response to the Postville Raid
Last updated June 17, 2008
Dangerous SAVE Act Advances in House
Last November, Representatives Heath Shuler (D-NC), Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Brian Bilbray (R-CA) introduced the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act (SAVE Act, H.R. 4088). On Tuesday, March 11, the bills’ supporters announced that they would use a discharge petition to bring the flawed Shuler-Tancredo bill directly to the floor of the House of Representatives without allowing any Congressional committee to consider the merits or drawbacks of the bill.
Once the petition gets 218 signatures, the bill will sail to the House floor for a vote. At last count, the petition had 189 signatures. This kind of back-door approach to legislating effectively circumvents the legislative process by "discharging" the bill from the committee with jurisdiction and prevents amendments.
Among other things, the SAVE Act:
- Is bad for ALL workers, not just immigrant workers. The SAVE Act expands the existing Basic Pilot employment verification system (now known as E-Verify) to cover all employers and all workers in just four short years, without addressing the well-documented flaws of the current system. Without addressing the well-documented 17.8 million errors in the E-Verify database, the SAVE Act would place in jeopardy the jobs of an estimated 12.7 million U.S. citizen workers whose information appears incorrectly in the database. That means that hardworking individuals will have to expend significant resources to fix the error, which could take weeks or months during which they would be at risk of layoff or termination. Suddenly, American workers will find their ability to earn money and support their families is subject to an error-prone, technologically inadequate government database.
- Throws billions of taxpayer dollars at a failed policy. For over twenty years the U.S. has been ramping up border and interior enforcement exponentially, yet the number of undocumented immigrants in this country continues to grow. Unprecedented increases in the amount of money given to the Department of Homeland Security to secure the border have thus far failed to stop illegal immigration. Not to mention, Congress has already upped the ante, appropriating 2.7 billion dollars for FY 2008 for emergency border security funding, including an additional increase of 3,000 Border Patrol officers.
- Undermines Security in our Communities. The SAVE Act would impose nationwide requirements on local police officers to act as immigration agents, an unwise policy that has been shown to foster distrust between law enforcement and the communities they protect. Already such policies have deterred people from reporting crimes and shifted important local resources away from solving crimes. In some communities, immigrants have even been targeted for crime on the assumption that they will be too afraid to report. Our police officers should be solving crimes and catching criminals, not spending their time chasing down busboys and nannies who have overstayed their visa.
- Expands the Costly, Inhumane and Unnecessary Detention of Immigrants. The SAVE Act calls for pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into the construction of 8,000 more detention spaces for immigrants. Last year, American taxpayers paid over $1.2 billion to detain over 260,000 individuals, including hundreds of families. About half of all immigrants held in detention have no criminal record. The detention of so many people who pose no threat to society is a costly, inhumane, and unnecessary practice.
In response to the SAVE Act discharge petition, House leadership has been holding a series of hearings for various committees to consider the issues within the SAVE Act in greater detail.
TAKE ACTION! Help us stop the SAVE Act in its track by urging your Representative to oppose the SAVE Act and refuse to sign the discharge petition. Click here to take action!
Last updated June 17, 2008
American DREAM for Many Put on Hold
The Senate on October 24 blocked the latest effort to address immigration, refusing to call up legislation that would allow some children of illegal immigrants to legalize their status in the United States. The bill needed 60 votes to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the DREAM Act (S 2205). Though falling 8 votes shy of the 60 needed, the vote signaled that there is still a bipartisan majority that supports the legislation moving forward. Click here for more information about the DREAM Act.
HIAS president Gideon Aronoff issued a statement following the Senate vote expressing disappointment in the Senate's failure to move forward on the DREAM Act, and condemning the offensive tactics used by opponents to inflame the debate. Click here to read the statement.
Posted October 29, 2007
Bush Administration Announces New Enforcement-Only Policy
On August 10, President Bush’s Administration announced a new enforcement-only policy that disregards the many fundamental problems of the United States’ broken immigration system. This new proposal includes provisions that will:
- amplify detention and deportation without addressing existing abuses within the system;
- reduce access to court hearings to contest erroneous deportation orders;
- base worksite enforcement on a notoriously unreliable federal database;
- expand the implementation of an error-prone and insecure employment eligibility verification system nationally; and
- escalate the dangerous practice of recruiting state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws.
Click here to read HIAS’ press release on this new policy.
Posted August 15, 2007
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
HIAS Statements and Press Releases
HIAS Policy Resolutions
Community Statements and Sign-On Letters
