|
For Immediate Release: Friday, March 14, 2008
Contact: Mary Moreno, 202-339-9316 mmoreno@communitychange.org
This week, a coalition of Senate Republicans plan to introduce a package of immigration enforcement bills. This coincides with an effort in the House of Representatives to force a floor vote on the SAVE Act (HR 4088) through a discharge petition, which allows a bill to by-pass regular order if it gathers signatures from a majority of Representatives. The Fair Immigration Reform Movement said the following concerning the bills:
Cynical and politically-motivated legislative attacks on immigrants in Congress are nothing new. Such attacks appeal to a small base of anti-immigrant activists within the Republican Party, but there is little evidence that the American public is interested. Not only are the three remaining presidential candidates from both parties largely associated with pro-immigrant positions and voting records, the recent special election in Illinois' 14th district demonstrates that even voters in traditionally Republican congressional districts will reject Republican candidates that fail to stand for realistic and meaningful solutions to the issues facing this country, including immigration.
Despite evidence to the contrary, short-sighted Republicans and misguided Democrats appear ready to fall back into political and legislative ruts lacking any real or lasting solutions to the broken immigration system. This package of legislation in the Senate and the SAVE Act in the House closely resemble HR 4437, the so-called Sensenbrenner bill passed by Republicans in 2005, which criminalized immigrants and polarized the nation. "Senselessbrenner" anti-immigrant tactics will force immigrants deeper into the shadows and make them more vulnerable to exploitation.
Specifically, the SAVE Act would require at least 6 million employers to verify the immigration status of their employees using an erroneous database managed by the Social Security Administration, which was never intended to be an employee verification enforcement tool. By some estimates more than 2.5 million employees per year could be incorrectly identified as unauthorized to work, and there are no provisions to redress mistakes. This would represent an unprecedented intrusion into the lives of every American worker. The SAVE Act rehashes the same failed approaches by the federal government that have led to millions more undocumented immigrants, allowed unscrupulous employers to undermine federal labor laws and other worker protections, and contributed to cost overruns and numerous failed border surveillance and security measures.
It is time for Americans to come together to find real and humane solutions for our broken immigration system. The Fair Immigration Reform Movement, which represents 400 community-based organizations in immigrant communities across the United States, opposes the SAVE Act and the political maneuvering of anti-immigrant politicians from both parties.
###
For more information on FIRM, please visit www.fairimmigration.org and www.buildingamericatogether.org.
|
