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Blog Series: Why We Need Immigration Reform Now

Posted March 26, 2010 by Ted Hesson

If you’ve visited this site in the past six months, and especially in the past week, you’ve seen the phrase many times: immigration reform.

We blog about reform policy. We post pictures of reform rallies. When we’re feeling frisky, we “tweet” about the latest immigration reform news (Yes, I’m still using quotation marks with that word).

“But what is immigration reform?” you might be wondering. Why do we need to change our immigration laws, and why now?

Back in August 2009, Long Island Wins launched a blog series geared towards answering those questions. In the series, we gave readers an idea about the types of policies that we endorse regarding issues like a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, immigration enforcement, and future immigration flows.

In addition, we enlisted local and national immigration experts to break down each of these topics for our readers, and explain why, for example, we need smarter, more humane border enforcement, or why we need a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrant students who meet certain academic criteria.

Here’s a compendium of the posts from our reform series:

Introduction To Comprehensive Immigration Reform
An Earned Path To Citizenship
The Role of Law Enforcement
Undocumented Youth: The DREAM Act
Family Reunification
Border Security
Future Immigration Flows

In addition to those posts, here’s the series introduction by our director, Maryann Sinclair Slutsky. While the August 2009 introduction is dated in some ways—Schumer didn’t release an immigration reform bill on Labor Day, as we had anticipated at the time—it still adequately summarizes why Long Island Wins believes that this is the right time for reform, and why you should feel the same way:

Introduction to Comprehensive Immigration Reform, by Maryann Sinclair Slutsky

Long Islanders know that immigration has always been a key part of the American experience. We’re a nation of immigrants, and we’re proud of the rich diversity that comes with living in this country. We appreciate the cultural contributions of immigrants—food, music, and art—as well as economic contributions that immigrants make to our communities.

However, as readers of this blog well know, our nation’s immigration system is broken, and we need to fix it. Instead of reasonable solutions, many politicians choose to foster anti-immigrant rhetoric and promote anti-immigrant laws. This kind of fear-mongering can divide communities, provoking hate crime and stifling legitimate responses to our country’s problems.

There’s good news, though: Change appears to be on the way. President Obama has pledged to address immigration reform by the end of the year, and New York’s own U.S. Senator, Democrat Chuck Schumer, anticipates having a reform bill ready for Congress by Labor Day.*

In order to succeed, immigration reform will need to focus on practical solutions that work for everyone. That means a path to earned citizenship for those of the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants who are willing to learn English, pay a fine and back taxes, undergo background checks, and come under the umbrella of the law.

In addition to a path to citizenship for the undocumented, comprehensive immigration reform will include changes in enforcement policies, family reunification laws, border security, a path to legalization for deserving students, and a reconsideration of future immigration flows, so that we don’t fin ourselves mired in the same immigration impasse years from now. In order for reform to succeed, we must address each of these issues in a way that’s consistent with our basic American values and that enhances the contributions of immigrants.

In the weeks leading up to Labor Day (September 7)**, Long Island Wins will offer insight and invite debate on each of these six aspects of immigration reform. We’ll be outlining why each issue is important, and how changes in these areas can help create an immigration system that works for every Long Islander, immigrant and native alike. We’ll be contributing our own thoughts on each aspect of reform, and we’ll also be featuring guest immigration experts who will be able to explain how reform will affect your community.

Crucial to this discussion, though, is you. The success of this debate depends on the feedback we get from readers, and on the discussions that Long Islanders have in their towns and villages. We encourage you to visit us for key updates, to weigh in with your thoughts, and to invite your friends to join in this important debate. If you haven’t already done so, join us on Facebook and Twitter.

It’s an exciting time, and we’re looking forward to exciting discussions.

*Schumer’s bill still hasn’t been released, but just last week both Schumer and Obama renewed their commitment to immigration reform. Schumer has stated that he and Lindsey Graham are waiting for a second Republican to cosponsor the legislation.

**See the footnote above.

(Image courtesy of wordle.net)
(Background by deletem3 via Flickr)

Tags : immigration reform, immigration reform series