Time to fix immigration system, Campos says

David Campos, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, states that now is the time to fix the immigration system.

After more than a year of campaigning, President Obama finally won much-needed and long-overdue changes to our health care system. Achieving what four other presidents could not, Obama broke through the political impasse to obtain health care coverage for the vast majority of uninsured Americans. The president now needs to take this mandate and act quickly on what should be the next major item on his domestic agenda: modernizing our immigration system.

Comprehensive immigration reform requires a balanced and measured approach that includes a broad legalization component, a foreign policy that promotes meaningful and equitable economic development in the region, and humane enforcement measures that strengthen, rather than divide, local communities.

Right now, more than 12 million people live under the shadow of fear because they lack legal immigration status. Many are hardworking mothers and fathers who, rather than watch their families suffer under the brutality of poverty and political turmoil, made the difficult and often dangerous decision to leave their homeland in search of the American dream. Many are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who fled death threats and persecution, or whose same-sex partners lack the legal right to file a petition on their behalf.

Even though many undocumented immigrants pay taxes, contribute to our economic and social advancement and want to be fully integrated into our society, the dread of deportation makes civic engagement a risky endeavor for them. Perhaps most importantly, they fear reporting crime in their neighborhoods or mistreatment in the workplace, making all of us less safe and causing labor standards to sink across the board.

A broad legalization program would be good for the economy. According to research from the Migration Policy Institute, as our country has become more educated, our share of native-born low-skilled workers has fallen significantly. That is why immigrant workers have become such a needed and ready source of labor for various industries, including construction, agriculture, food processing, and building-cleaning and maintenance, just to name a few.

The blueprint set forth by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham on March 18 (”Marchers hoping to focus attention on immigration,” March 21) prioritizes curbing unauthorized immigration as a primary function of immigration reform. They focus on increased militarization and security measures at the border and in the interior of the country. While I recognize that we have a right and obligation to protect our borders and that any comprehensive immigration reform package must contain some enforcement provisions, enforcement has its limitations.

For one, increased enforcement has not been the panacea many thought it would be. Even though border-enforcement spending has tripled since 1993, it has failed to deter significant numbers of unauthorized migrants from attempting entry. This is because illegal-immigration patterns are largely the result of macroeconomic needs in our economy as well as macroeconomic changes in the economies of immigrants’ home countries. In other words, no wall, military force or barbed wire will stop people from attempting to cross the border if staying behind is tantamount to misery, despair or even death. Thus, in addition to enforcement, we need a foreign policy that promotes meaningful and equitable economic opportunities for all.

If You Are An Immigrant (even a US Citizen), Here Are 9 Things You Should Know

Are you a Naturalized U.S. Citizen, Lawful Permanent Resident, Visa Holder, or an Undocumented Immigrant? We recommend you take the following steps to protect yourself in our current version of America. The last couple of weeks have reminded immigrants, even naturalized U.S. citizens, that they were not born in the United States. Our office has received countless phone calls, emails, and social media messages from people worrying about what their family’s future in the United States holds. Most people want to know what they can do now to protect themselves from what promises to be a wave of anti-immigration activity by the federal government. Trump's Executive Order on Interior Enforcement has some provisions that should make most Americans shiver. We recommend the following actions for each of the following groups: Naturalized U.S. citizens. In particular if you have a foreign accent, and you are traveling within 100 miles of any US Border (including the oceans...

Seven Reasons Why the Georgia Legislature Should Repeal HB-87

Recently the Alabama Attorney General called on the Alabama State Legislature to repeal parts of Alabama's horrid anti-immigration law ( HB 56), because of the "unintended" consequences of the bill (frankly, what happened was not unintended). Because of the similarity between the two laws, Georgia's Speaker of the House, David Ralston was asked whether Georgia Legislature would repeal part or all of HB 87, Georgia own anti-immigration law. HB 87 has caused almost a half a billion dollars in damage to the Georgia economy (along with untold suffering in Georgia's immigrant communities) without any noted or reported positive effect. Speaker Ralston plainly stated that the Georgia Legislature would NOT do anything to repeal HB 87 . While it understandable why a politician would not admit that a pet bill he shepherded and pushed through the state legislature was simply bad law, it is also clear that Speaker Ralston is facing a challenge on his RIGHT in th...

Why is USCIS Taking So Long to Renew DACA Work Permits?

If the calls to our office are any indicator, there are thousands of DACA recipients whose work permit applications were filed at least three months prior to expiration, who are still waiting for their renewed work permits. Without renewed permits, these individuals lose the right to work legally, the right to drive, and may once again accrue unlawful presence. The DHS published a notice in October 2014 advising DACA recipients that they could file their request for extension up to 150 days (5 months) prior to expiration. As with all things government, very few of the DACA recipients, who tend not to frequent government websites, knew about the memo and many did not file so far before expiration perhaps thinking that extending a work permit was a like extending a drivers license, its is done in a few minutes. As an experienced immigration lawyer will tell you, the USCIS does nothing quickly, and certainly does not worry that a person may lose their job or their drive...

Musings on Immigration

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