I. Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Our immigration system is broken and in serious need of a comprehensive overhaul.  The United States has an estimated 10 million or more undocumented immigrants and a majority of them are Hispanic.  Many of these immigrants risked their lives crossing the dangerous border regions, in search of the American Dream.  The horrific September 11th attacks magnified the chaos of our immigration system, and our nation's response to the tragedy has, at times, placed immigrants in the path of misguided policies that have harmed our community.  Arrests and detentions of immigrants, workplace and neighborhood raids, and civil and human rights violations have all increased as a result of the nation's efforts to secure our homeland from the threat of terrorism.

Despite these hardships, immigrants continue to contribute their cultural richness, entrepreneurship, ingenuity, hard work and taxes to the United States.  In response to our nation's security needs and in defense of our own communities, the CHC is committed to working with Congress and the Administration to enact Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR).

Such reform should include a path to permanency for the undocumented already here, a reduction in the long queues of the family immigration system to promote family unity and a temporary worker program that creates new channels for future workers to enter safely and legally.

II.  Immigrant Students and Higher Education

The CHC recognizes that there are tens of thousands of young students, who, despite their successes both in and outside of school, face a future of uncertainty due to their limited access to affordable tuition, restrictions on financial aid, and their undocumented immigration status.  Given that so many of these students were brought by their parents to the United States at a young age, the CHC is committed to supporting these dedicated students to reach their educational goals.

The CHC will support and promote legislative initiatives that, at minimum, grant immigrant students legal permanent residence and full and equal access to fair tuition rates and financial aid.  It supports the DREAM Act in the House and Senate.

III.  Family Reunification

A variety of reforms are needed to ensure the unity of the family as husbands, wives, parents and children immigrate to the United States.

The current statutory ceilings for family immigrant visas are no longer adequate and have resulted in unacceptable immigration backlogs, wherein spouses and minor children are often waiting more than seven years to be with their family members.  To accomplish this goal, we need to reduce the time it takes for Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) to approve family-based petitions and to adjust the current family immigrant visa ceilings.

We are also committed to reforming other obstacles in our current immigration laws that are separating families, such as restoring section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and repealing the bars to re-entering the U.S.  Section 245(i) allows immigrants who live in the United States and are otherwise eligible for a visa to move forward in the process of becoming legal permanent residents without having to leave the country.

IV. Temporary workers, guest workers, or "essential worker" visas

Due to labor shortages in certain industries and high-level migration negotiations with governments such as Mexico, Congress continues to debate temporary and guest worker programs.  Historically, these programs have favored the employer and subjected the temporary worker to abuse and labor violations.  The CHC discourages "traditional" models of temporary or guest worker programs that protect the employer at the expense of fair labor practices and the rights of immigrant and U.S. workers.

Nevertheless, the CHC is committed to working with members of Congress, labor unions and the business and advocacy communities to provide for immigration reform that prudently and fairly allows for the legal migration of immigrants in pursuit of the American dream.

The CHC believes that any future legal flows of workers to the United States should:  (1) avoid increasing unemployment or suppressing wages among the U.S. worker population; (2) guarantee immigrant workers the same labor rights as their U.S. worker counterparts; (3) be flexible and not restricted to the sponsorship of an individual employer; (4) protect workers access to legal permanent residence; and (5) allow immediate family members the option to join the temporary worker in the U.S.

The CHC endorses the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act (AgJobs)

V. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration Service and Enforcement Functions of the abolished INS

On March 1, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ceased to exist and the new, cabinet-level DHS assumed the diverse immigration and enforcement functions of the INS.

The functions of the former INS are divided into three different directorates within DHS, each with its own chain of command and authority.

The CHC will closely monitor the actions of the DHS with regard to immigration enforcement and services.  The CHC will be vigilant and proactive to ensure that the DHS remedies the backlog of applications it has inherited, that the quality of immigration services is a high priority, and that the civil liberties of citizens and non-citizens alike are protected.

VI. Immigration Enforcement

The CHC opposes immigration enforcement measures that will only serve to push immigrants further into the shadows where they live in fear and are more likely to be exploited.  We are committed to improving our national security, but see piecemeal adjustments of immigration enforcement as counterproductive if they are not included in a broad, comprehensive package overhauling the whole immigration system.

Finally, we will work to ensure that anti-terrorism rhetoric is not used as a pretext to enact anti-immigrant measures.