Immigration
‘Reform’ on the Horizon but at What
Cost?
By Deepa Iyer
For
immigrants in America, the need for changes in the
immigration system as it exists today is clear.
We can all tell stories of family, friends, and
community members who have struggled with various
aspects of the immigration system – from applying
for and receiving benefits such as visas or green
cards, to understanding the regulations governing
asylum or citizenship, to worrying about whether
we will be targeted for immigration violations,
however minor they may be.
As an organization that works in the US South Asian
community, we have been documenting the experiences
of South Asian immigrants with a range of immigration
statuses. Below are some examples of how the immigration
system has negatively affected South Asian immigrants:
Sumathi of Massachusetts is a young software engineer
from Hyderabad who moved to the United States in
1999 on an H-1B visa and became a legal permanent
resident. She fell in love with and married Jeevan
in India in August 2002. Jeevan is a physician who
is working on a project to eradicate polio in India
for the World Health Organization. Sumathi applied
to bring Jeevan over to America to join her. Although
the application was submitted over three years ago,
Jeevan is still in India, and it is likely to take
two more years for the application to be approved.
In the meantime, Jeevan has not been able to enter
the country and cannot even get a tourist visa to
come see her.
The Signal Corporation, a corporation that does
oil drilling work on the Gulf Coast, brought 300
Indian nationals on temporary H-2B work visas from
Dubai and Saudi Arabia to Mississippi and Texas
to work as pipe fitters and welders. After being
told by the recruiter, Global Resources, to pay
as much as $20,000 - their life savings for some
- for their visas, they were promised refunds, wages,
and green cards once they arrived. However, once
they got here, they allege their wages were drastically
cut, they had to pay daily labor camp fees, and
they were forced to stay in overcrowded windowless
trailers that lacked sufficient facilities. The
workers in Mississippi began organizing to get their
money back and protest their working conditions
- but once discovered, the company began to retaliate
against them. The company started terminating their
jobs and sending them back to India. Armed security
guards at the company even raided the barracks,
imprisoned the fired workers in a room, and threatened
them with deportation. Workers now are unable to
return home due to debt and are unable to find new
jobs due to visa restrictions.
Terwinder, a Sikh mother of two American-born children,
was deported from Brown Deer, Wisconsin after police
found out she was living in the United States illegally.
Police officers were assisting her with a flat tire
on Nov. 4, 2004, when they found out she had an
outstanding deportation order and immediately arrested
her. Terwinder lived in the United States for 12
years she was deported along with her two children
who have not lived in India before.before
For the past two years, immigration reform has been
the rallying cry for advocates, immigrants and policymakers.
The principles behind reform include, among others,
the elimination of family and employment backlogs;
a meaningful path to entry and citizenship for all
workers; and legalization of undocumented immigrants
in the country.
The US Senate is considering a sweeping immigration
bill that contains provisions that will dramatically
alter the immigration system as we know it. Unfortunately,
the proposal does not meet many of the goals of
immigration reform as outlined above.
The Senate proposal (S. 1639) addresses a range
of issues. It includes a path to legal status for
undocumented immigrants and students, but the workability
of the program – from returns to one’s
country of origin to high penalties and long waits
– is questionable. The immigration bill also
eliminates several family preference categories
that many have used to reunite their families.
The Senate bill also creates a new, untested merit-based
point system that determines who receives green
cards. Points would be allocated based primarily
on the attainment of education, English language
ability, and employment. This system could create
an underclass of immigrants who may be unable to
obtain permanent status under this new system. Finally,
the proposal would appropriate over $4 billion to
intensify immigration enforcement in the interior
and at the border, and increases penalties for immigration
violations – including a 10-year bar from
returning to the United States for overstaying a
visa for even just a day.
As the Senate considers the immigration bill this
week, advocates are monitoring the possibility of
improving the proposal. The Senate Republicans and
Democrats have agreed to a limited number of amendments
that will be considered as potential add-ons. However,
whether the amendments – even the “good”
ones – will fundamentally change the flaws
of the proposal is unclear at this point.
While immigration reform will benefit South Asians
and other immigrants, it cannot be obtained at the
cost of an enforcement-heavy system that does not
value family unity and the contributions of workers
to America. Unfortunately, the proposal before the
Senate at this stage is taking a direction that
is contrary to what immigrants demanded at the 2006
rallies around the country.
The time is now for us to contact the Senate to
express our concerns with the Senate immigration
bill and to call for fair and humane immigration
reform.
- New America Media
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