For Sandra Bruno, life is good. A recent graduate of Tulane University’s law school, she volunteers for a neighborhood group in Chicago while hunting for a job. But her future didn’t always look so bright. In high school, Bruno’s status as an undocumented immigrant kept her on edge. “Half of my family had green cards, and the other half didn’t,” she says. After Bruno won a scholarship to Princeton, her student visa application was finally approved. “It was frightening and scary,” she says of the wait for approval. “I’ve lived here most of my life.”
We are a nation of immigrants. No matter how we got here, no matter whether we arrived last century or last week, we came to the United States seeking refuge from intolerance or poverty or both. America embodies the promise of a better future, and we embody America. For centuries, we have shaped and strengthened the United States with our work, our cultures and our hopes for our children.
Today, however, millions of the new immigrants among us work in a shadow world, vulnerable to exploitation. The federal immigration system creates barriers to participation in American democracy, splits up our families and exposes us to harassment as well as dangerous – and sometimes life-threatening – conditions in detention. Our civil liberties are violated when we are denied basic due process and profiled based on our racial or ethnic background. Anti-immigrant policies at all levels of government create an environment of fear that is contrary to everything this nation – our nation – stands for.
We urge the passage of immigration reform and the provision of more opportunities for immigrant families to become citizens so that our contributions can be recognized. We seek the creation of a support system for children whose parents have been deported. We call for the separation of the responsibilities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the police. We urge the provision of education for our children. We seek permission to carry a state driver’s license. We ask that the immigrants among us be educated about our civil rights.
We urge police departments and local governments to adopt policies to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement authorities only in very narrow and specific circumstances, leaving immigration enforcement to the federal government.
State and federal laws combine to make it impossible for the undocumented immigrants among us to obtain a driver’s license, which creates public safety risks and increases the cost of insurance for everyone. States can develop practical solutions including removing barriers to obtaining drivers’ licenses imposed by the federal REAL ID law, solutions that will allow us, regardless of our status, to work and drive safely.
Ten states currently allow undocumented immigrant children who have grown up in the United States and attended American schools to qualify for in-state tuition. For many of us, that cost savings enables our children to go to college. We urge states to adopt in-state tuition policies for undocumented immigrant children who reside within the state.
All of us strive to be better citizens. We advocate increased resources for English language and civics education classes for immigrants, citizens with limited English proficiency and those among us interested in naturalizing to become American citizens.
We urge the passage of measures that ban racial profiling and emphasize the role of local law enforcement to protect public safety rather than to enforce federal immigration law.
As many as 12 million undocumented immigrants live and work in the United States. Some of us have lived here for many years. We urge creation of a path to citizenship that would help keep track of who is in the country, ensure that we as immigrants are protected by the same labor laws that protect citizens, and allow us to contribute fully to our communities and the nation. The citizenship process should be streamlined and simplified, and the fees should be substantially reduced. During the citizenship process, our families should be allowed to work and protected from deportation.
For immigrants integrating into American society, relying on our networks of family members has always been an important way to “learn the ropes” of our new culture and economy. Barriers created by the application process separate siblings, spouses, and parents from their children for years. We seek a fair and more expansive process to allow our family members on waiting lists to be reunited, regardless of where they are from.
Federal law allows all our children to attend public schools, regardless of their immigration status, but local governments have sometimes tried to control immigration by checking our documents as parents or those of our immigrant children. Such illegal action creates a climate of fear in our schools and in our communities. Federal authorities should ensure that all children have access to schools.
Tens of thousands of our children are brought to the United States, sometimes as infants, without documentation. As adults, they are unable to get jobs, attend college or otherwise contribute to our country, regardless of their talents. We seek legislation that allows our young people to attend college as a way to earn legal status.
In the last two years, the Department of Homeland Security has increased immigration enforcement raids on our worksites and in our communities. As immigrants, we live in fear of being separated from our families. We are vulnerable to employer exploitation and are often mistreated while being held after a raid. We call on the Department of Homeland Security to halt the use of raids until Congress enacts an immigration reform bill that resolves our fate. We urge the enforcement of existing worker protections to prevent exploitation.
We seek laws creating ethical standards of treatment and protections for our families in detention proceedings, and the creation of alternatives to detention that respect our dignity and our ties to the communities in which we live.
As immigrants, we attempt to assimilate and succeed in the United States by learning English, by naturalizing to become citizens and by participating fully in the life of our communities, including voting. We seek increased resources for English literacy and civics education in local communities and seek the end of naturalization backlogs.
The wall that is rising between the United States and Mexico is a symbol of the failure of our current immigration policy. We seek an end to funding for the construction of the border wall, and the beginning of a sane and reasonable strategy on immigration.