Topic 1: Immigration Reform
With over eleven million undocumented citizens inside America, seeking refuge from the violence and oppression in the original countries and coming to our country to escape poverty and improve their lives, immigration has been an ever controversial issue. In the past years, we have experienced and witnessed first hand the direct consequence of gridlock within Congress, a mother to the failure to address this ever pressing issue. As seen through the 2016 presidential election, there has been a stark division between immigration policies on both parties, ranging from building a wall and instituting a deportation force to allowing a more feasible path to citizenship. Additionally, not only is there a political polarity, …show more content…
In 2013, Senator John McCain, Chuck Schumer, and Marco Rubio created a bill to compromise between all political spectrums that again increased border security in exchange for creating a path toward citizenship. This bill also created a new W-visa program that granted workers with lower skills a chance to apply for jobs. Due to the political occurrences in 2012, specifically Mitt Romney’s loss, Senate passed the bill; However, due to pushback by grassroots organizations and Republican fear of Tea Party members, the House completely ignored the legislation, and even Senator Marco Rubio abandoned the …show more content…
This section consists of two parts: immigration enforcement and detention. For immigration enforcement, we must expand DACA to provide relief for Dreamers, parents of legal permanent residents, and other immigrants who was given protection under the 2013 immigration bill passed by the Senate. We must also protect the rights of immigrant workers by providing a whistleblower visa for those who reported labor violations. This addresses the issue of the violation of immigrant rights because many employers abuse employees, knowing that they will not report the abuse due to fear of deportation. Furthermore, there must be a permanent immigration relief for families. The Parole-in-place policies must be expanded to include all undocumented relatives of US citizens and permanent residents as well as those who came to the US on a visa but fell out of status, instead of just relatives of armed forces. Furthermore, this plan also prevents deportation forces such as the 287(g) program,Criminal Alien Program, and the Priority Enforcement Program from turning local law enforcement into deportation officers who are ridden with racial profiling and are criminalizing people of color. This plan will implement the recommendations of President Obama’s “Task Force of the 21st Century Policing”. This will “decouple federal immigration enforcement from routine local policing” (US Department of Justice). We must also champion the
With over eleven million undocumented citizens inside America, seeking refuge from the violence and oppression in the original countries and coming to our country to escape poverty and improve their lives, immigration has been an ever controversial issue. In the past years, we have experienced and witnessed first hand the direct consequence of gridlock within Congress, a mother to the failure to address this ever pressing issue. As seen through the 2016 presidential election, there has been a stark division between immigration policies on both parties, ranging from building a wall and instituting a deportation force to allowing a more feasible path to citizenship. Additionally, not only is there a political polarity, …show more content…
In 2013, Senator John McCain, Chuck Schumer, and Marco Rubio created a bill to compromise between all political spectrums that again increased border security in exchange for creating a path toward citizenship. This bill also created a new W-visa program that granted workers with lower skills a chance to apply for jobs. Due to the political occurrences in 2012, specifically Mitt Romney’s loss, Senate passed the bill; However, due to pushback by grassroots organizations and Republican fear of Tea Party members, the House completely ignored the legislation, and even Senator Marco Rubio abandoned the …show more content…
This section consists of two parts: immigration enforcement and detention. For immigration enforcement, we must expand DACA to provide relief for Dreamers, parents of legal permanent residents, and other immigrants who was given protection under the 2013 immigration bill passed by the Senate. We must also protect the rights of immigrant workers by providing a whistleblower visa for those who reported labor violations. This addresses the issue of the violation of immigrant rights because many employers abuse employees, knowing that they will not report the abuse due to fear of deportation. Furthermore, there must be a permanent immigration relief for families. The Parole-in-place policies must be expanded to include all undocumented relatives of US citizens and permanent residents as well as those who came to the US on a visa but fell out of status, instead of just relatives of armed forces. Furthermore, this plan also prevents deportation forces such as the 287(g) program,Criminal Alien Program, and the Priority Enforcement Program from turning local law enforcement into deportation officers who are ridden with racial profiling and are criminalizing people of color. This plan will implement the recommendations of President Obama’s “Task Force of the 21st Century Policing”. This will “decouple federal immigration enforcement from routine local policing” (US Department of Justice). We must also champion the