Organizing around the passage of comprehensive immigration reform continues as several pro-immigrant community groups press lawmakers for a quick action. They are also demanding that the anticipated bill should have a provision that undocumented immigrants not be required to return their native country to renew their guest worker permit; that application fees be reduced; and that the processing time for green-card applications already with immigration authorities be shortened. Senators and House Representatives were approached also with the request that persons who could not participate in the Special Registration Program and are under order of deportation ordered to be deported be given the opportunity to legalize their status.
As well, a letter sent to President Barrack Obama requests a halt to the arrest of undocumented immigrants and to postpone the deportation of those who have already been arrested until the passage of the reform bill.
Twenty-five members of DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), an organization affiliated with the National Network for Immigration and Refugee Rights, met with two senators and five representatives in the House, during last week of April. Another team worked there from May 12 to 24.
"There was no indication to make us think that Congress would pass an immigration bill that would benefit all of the 14 million undocumented immigrants, despite President Obama having spoken on the issue more than once. We had heard many times the same assurances from President Bush from the start of his first term in 2001. But no action was taken. Moreover, the immigration laws are being enforced strictly," said DRUM Executive Director Monami Maulik.
Maulik said that at a meeting with the Chairman of Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), accompanied by several persons who are under order of deportation, others seeking asylum, and students whose parents are undocumented, they stated their demands while group members described the realities they faced. Maulik questioned how many people would benefit from the passage of an immigration bill that required a $3,000 fee to apply for a green card and to pay taxes retroactively. She also wondered if there were any estimates on the cost to a person and his family if they are required to travel back to their native country in order to apply for residency in the United States.
The group met with the two state senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Christine Gillibrand, NY Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-District 7), NY Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-District 5), NY Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-District 9), NY Congressman Gregory Meeks, (D-District 6), NY Congressman Gerold Nadler (D-District 8), NY Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-District 12), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Congressman Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX).
At a meeting with the high level officers of the Home Land Security Department, Maulik urged them to end their initiatives that target Muslim communities and the surveillance on Imams and devotees being carried out at several mosques. Pointing out that there are an estimated 40,000 deaths of immigrants trying to cross the border from Mexico since 1994 [Maulik references www. derechoshumanos.org which states that for each of the officially found 4,000 dead you can count on nine more who were never found], she insisted that authorities need to obviate that policy.
Word is out that preparations are currently underway on several immigration reform bills to be introduced to Congress. There is also great concern that if Congress does not pass an immigration reform bill by September, introduction of a new bill may be delayed indefinitely as immigration issues get pushed aside by a host of complex problems that are being confronted globally.
