Human Rights and Immigration Reform- AFSC Denver Post Guest Commentary

By Jennifer Piper, Jordan T. Garcia and Gabriela Flora

Reforming our obsolete immigration system is a human rights issue that can no longer wait. Our nation needs a clear and workable path toward legal residency for the millions of undocumented workers and families living in this country.

Some proposals, such as the immigration-reform blueprint that Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham are spearheading, will only create the needed path after creating a more militarized southern border. Border communities along the U.S.-Mexico border have for generations demanded accountability and respect for their quality of life, not more of the same failed policies.

Adding more patrols, or high-tech surveillance systems, to "secure the borders" does not make us more secure. The tragic deaths of at least 6,000 migrants attempting to cross the U.S. - Mexico border since the mid 1990s are a stark reminder that border control policies have only perpetuated suffering. Migrants are 17 times more likely to die today while crossing the border than they were in 1998.

But, we hear from lawmakers that trumpeting border security is necessary to make immigration reform possible. Then where is the clear proof that the multimillion-dollar wall along the U.S. - Mexico border has curbed migration? Economists say the recession of the past two years has had more of an impact.

Stepping up ineffective border patrols, filling more detention jails like the one in Aurora, and more wholesale deportations would only aggravate the climate of fear and uncertainty under which millions of families live. In fact, the Obama administration deported more undocumented migrants in its first year in office than in George W. Bush's last year in the White House, based on the Department of Homeland Security's own reports.

That is why eighty people from Colorado are traveling via bus, van and plane to Washington D.C. and why tens of thousands of immigrant rights supporters are preparing to converge on the streets of Denver, Washington D.C. and across the country, this weekend to call for just and humane immigration reform, not policies that would expand the current ineffective, overzealous enforcement system.

They and millions of others are calling for an end to policies that split families apart and the beginnings of policies that provide safe and swift paths to legalization. We believe the seven core principles the American Friends Service Committee have proposed in A New Path Toward Humane Immigration Policy will help achieve that goal quickly, fairly and humanely.

These principles are: create justice with humane economic policies, protect the labor rights of all workers, develop a clear path to permanent residence, respect the civil and human rights of immigrants, demilitarize the U.S.-Mexico border, make family reunification a top priority, and ensure that immigrants and refugees have access to services.

As a nation, we should reject appeals to tie the future of millions of families to a broken, unjust system of enforcement. Instead we should respect the human rights and dignity of immigrants through humane and fair immigration policies.

Jennifer Piper, Jordan T. Garcia and Gabriela Flora are with the Colorado office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker peace and justice organization. To access A New Path Toward Humane Immigration Policy go to http://www.afsc.org/newpath.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_14764341#ixzz0jbSLX69V

Photos from 800 person Denver rally for immigration reform on March 21 (by Gabriela Flora)