PCUN and CAUSA Respond to Passage of Senate Immigration Bill

PCUN and CAUSA cannot support the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S 2611), the bill in its current form. We will continue to fight for realistic and comprehensive immigration reform that creates an earned path to citizenship, respects the rights of all workers, keeps families together, and protects the safety of all Americans.

We want a workable and humane solution that rewards work, respects rights, unites families, protects workers, strengthens the economy, and leads to citizenship for immigrants who are here today and those who come in the future. As the debate moves into the conference committee, we call on our Senators to do everything possible to fight for real reform that reflects these principles.

A realistic solution to fix our broken immigration system needs to have a workable legalization program that will offer earned legal status with a path to citizenship for hardworking immigrants that avoids dividing families. A three-tiered legalization system makes no sense. Leaving 2– 4 million undocumented immigrants out of the process and subjecting them to harsh enforcement procedures only forces them further into the shadows.

We also oppose eliminating judicial discretion and humanitarian exceptions in deportation cases as this kind of ironclad inflexibility ensures the brutal separation of families and tramples on due process.

We will continue to work to fix the flaws in S. 2611 and to prevent the punitive and inhumane provisions in HR 4437 from being incorporated into a comprehensive immigration reform package in conference committee.