Editor’s Note: With this issue of Network News, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights shares with readers the background, views, and hopes of immigrant rights organizers and advocates concerning legalization and other immigration reforms. We hope this issue will be a useful tool as we strategize for a genuine and just resolution to the problem of people needing to live and work without the benefit of immigration documents.

The February decision of the AFL-CIO Executive Council to support an unconditional amnesty for undocumented immigrants has fueled the hopes of immigrant communities who have been calling for a new legalization initiative. The promise of this period sharply contrasts with previous years, when legislation led to further criminalization of immigrants, and deliberate scapegoating fed public anxieties and hostilities. Now, encouraged by the interest and publicity generated by labor’s support, many organizations have called for immediate congressional action on a number of immigration reforms.

Progress, however, has been complicated by legislative proposals that offer promises of legalization in return for an expansion of H-1B visas for skilled workers to appease the high-tech industry, or by other proposals to institute agricultural guestworker programs. Many groups are opposed to such compromises or “trade-offs” and instead, have been working to identify common “principles” to help unify our movement and to serve as a guideline in considering legislative proposals.

Considering Principles and Values

Identifying principles — thinking hard about what we value — is certainly important at this stage. Over the years, the Board and members of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights have identified several notions that are each a part of “what we value” in a just immigration program. These include:

• Access to permanent residency. The U.S. and other countries need to make a commitment to the right to permanent residency. We want a program that provides an ongoing basis for gaining permanent residency, including the legalization of status for those who are undocumented. One example of meeting this need would be a “rolling registry,” to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for legalization after a certain period of residency. While some groups are calling for “amnesty,” this is generally considered a one-shot remedy. Amnesty also implies “forgiveness” for the “crime” of being undocumented, rather than governments recognizing their responsibility to ensure human, labor and civil rights for all residents.
  
• The elimination of employer sanctions, the 1986 provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act that outlawed the hiring of undocumented workers. Employer sanctions was the “quick fix” response to deal with the “illegal immigrant problem,” and supposedly a vehicle to target exploitative employers. Government reports have concluded that employer sanctions have led to widespread discrimination against “foreign ‘looking’ and ‘sounding’” workers; sanctions’ impact on deterring undocumented immigration has also been questioned. Sanctions have also given employers a tool to silence workers, effectively undermining the rights of immigrant workers. Instead, labor protections for all workers, regardless of immigration status, should be emphasized. An end to employer sanctions would be a necessary and appropriate companion to a legalization program.
  
• A decisive resolution to the tremendous backlogs of visa applicants waiting to unify with family members in the U.S., and re-examination of current limits and restrictions for immigrants from certain countries. After waiting in the backlog year after year, applicants sometimes give up hope of uniting with family members, or in desperation, come to the U.S. and live without immigration documents. (Over 60% of the undocumented are “visa overstays,” who originally came to the U.S. with legal status.)
  
• An end to visas tied to employment — either through guestworker programs serving agribusiness (like the bracero-type programs), or the “high tech” H-1B visas under consideration for the Silicon Valley computer industry. In either case, workers in these programs face abuse and exploitation, and can be easily intimidated from filing complaints or organizing in a union.
  
• The de-militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. The build-up of immigration enforcement activities has contributed to the harassment, abuse or death of tens of thousands of migrants, legal permanent residents, and U.S. citizens, particularly those of Latino heritage. In recent legislative debates, increased border enforcement has been offered as a “trade-off” for other immigration reforms.