Washington, D.C. –
The enforcement-only immigration reform proposal released last week by
the Bush administration effectively demonstrates the White House’s
surrender to the contentious issue of truly comprehensive immigration
reform, according to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).

“We are alarmed that the Bush administration, which has all along
touted the absolute necessity to comprehensively reform our immigration
system, has decided to pursue a course that disregards the many
fundamental problems of our broken system,” says Gideon Aronoff,
president and CEO of HIAS. “By ignoring the existence of approximately
12 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the country
and the economic realities that draw workers to this country, this new
plan completely misses the mark. On an issue of life or death
importance – which this truly is – accepting defeat is simply not an
option.”

According to Lisa Shuger, HIAS’ Washington director, the new plan is
a minimalist approach that will not solve the underlying problems. “The
Bush administration has admitted that our immigration laws are broken,
yet its new plan aims to improve border security and immigration within
the limits of those broken laws. Any plan that seeks improvements
within a broken legal system without fixing the laws first is futile.”

The administration’s new proposal comprises 26 points, and 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,
says HIAS.

“Implementing these enforcement policies without a comprehensive
overhaul of our legal immigration system dooms them to failure,” says
Aronoff. “What’s more, many of these policies could lead to disastrous
consequences for the nation’s security, economy, and civil rights.”
Furthermore, the administration did not go as far as it should have
within the limits of the law, says Aronoff. “These 26 points ignore
the recommendations for administrative reforms which were made more
than two years ago by the U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom.” That bipartisan commission documented systemic problems of
immigration officers failing to follow procedures in the apprehension
and processing of undocumented aliens, undermining DHS evidence to be
used in support of their enforcement efforts, as well as evidence to be
used to prevent bona fide asylum seekers from being returned to their
persecutors.

HIAS has led the Jewish community effort over the last several years
to promote comprehensive immigration reform that is consistent with
Jewish religious and ethical values of welcoming and protecting the
stranger, and the Jewish community’s interest in
promoting border security policies that can actually work. For years,
HIAS has called for reform of America’s legal immigration system that
provides adequate channels for workers to enter and work in the country
legally with their rights fully protected, improvements to the family
immigration system to reunite families in a more timely manner, and an
earned path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants
currently living in the country.

“Only by channeling the current undocumented flow into a legal and
orderly system that is secure and protects human rights at the same
time will we truly be able to secure our borders and more easily tell
the difference between those who mean to do us harm and those who only
seek to work or reunite with family,” says Aronoff. “If this
administration is really serious about securing our borders, it needs
to pursue a national policy that is comprehensive and will fix our
broken laws once and for all. We are urging the administration to
reverse this course and for Congress to do its job.”