Part 8: Creating a 21st Century Immigration System
1. Trump administration has forcibly separated families and put children in cages, deported veterans, raided workplaces, denied COVID testing and treatment based on immigration status, banned people from traveling to the US based on their faith or country of origin, and turned away refugees and asylum seekers
a. I hear a lot that the migration centers were a problem under Obama too. I found this article that goes into detail about what immigration was like under Obama. Although I don’t think he was fabulous at it, I think Trump has certainly made things worse. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/obama-record-deportations-deporter-chief-or-not
2. Immigrants ARE America (I just want to contrast this to the Republican platform, that called immigrants dangerous criminals that we have to protect our streets from…)
3. Stop construction of the border wall
4. terminate the Muslim travel ban, invite those whose visas were denied because of this to re-apply
a. Absolutely. Islam is not an inherently radical and violent religion.
5. reinstate, expand, and streamline protections for Dreamers and parents of American citizen children to keep families together
6. protect and expand the asylum system
a. reverse policies that prevent victims of gang and domestic violence, as well as LGBTQ+ people who are unsafe in their home countries, from being eligible to apply for asylum.
b. end policies that deny protected entry to asylum seekers
c. end prosecution of asylum seekers at the border and policies that force them to apply from “safe third countries” which are far from safe.
ii. Please please please look into the Remain in Mexico Policy. It is awful. And listen to this. Or read the transcript, but listening is more powerful. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/688/the-out-crowd
1. Link to the transcript https://www.thisamericanlife.org/688/transcript
iii. If you are interested, here is the website all about asylum and how to get it. You can explore and see what they have on there. https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-and-asylum/asylum
7. rescind immigrant wealth test
a. Ugh, I didn’t even know about this and now I’ve read about it and…just no. We need to get rid of it. https://www.nilc.org/2019/08/20/3-things-you-should-know-about-trumps-immigration-wealth-test-the-torch/
8. provide a roadmap to citizenship for the undocumented workers who are already here
9. eliminate unfair barriers to naturalization, reduce application backlogs, make immigration processes faster, more efficient, and less costly.
10. prioritize family reunification
a. support legislation to treat spouses and children of green card holders as immediate relatives and end their separation
b. eliminate family-based green card backlogs and reform the system to speed up family-based visas
c. eliminate immigration barriers like the 3 and 10 year bars, remove 10 year waiting period for waivers to the permanent bars that keep loved ones apart
i. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/three-and-ten-year-bars
11. expand annual visa cap for victims of human trafficking
12. ensure that law-abiding individuals with Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Enforced Departure are not sent back to countries where they cannot live safely.
13. support Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights and the Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation (POWER) Act
14. end workplace and community raids
a. protect locations like schools, houses of worship, health care facilities
b. prohibit raids in which children are left behind without their caregivers
i. Listen to this segment of another This American Life episode. A workplace was raided and kids came home from school to find their parents were gone and they had no idea where they were or if they would see them again. Not ok. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/673/left-behind/act-one-4
15. detention should be a last resort, not the default
a. any facility where migrants are being detained should be held to high standards of care
b. detention centers should provide access to competent interpreters
c. detention of children should be restricted to the shortest possible time
16. immigration judges should be able to operate free of inappropriate political influence
17. improve and increase opportunities for legal, permanent immigration
a. I posted this link in an earlier section, but it bears repeating. Legal immigration is SO DIFFICULT and takes FOREVER. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/why-don%E2%80%99t-they-just-get-line
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