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BAIRC Immigrant Rights Platform |
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download [english] [spanish] |
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Fair and Just Immigration Policies
Economic forces that produce poverty around the world often drive people to migrate to the United States in order to ensure the survival of their families. The U.S. economy is part of a network of economies across the world that relies on immigrant labor; as trade in goods moves across borders, so do people. Once in the U.S., immigrants contribute to our society in numerous ways – paying billions of dollars in local, state and federal taxes, fueling key industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and household work, starting businesses that create jobs, and bringing innovation, diversity of language and culture as well as an interest and willingness to participate in civic life.
Yet, our current immigration system discourages immigrant inclusion and is out of touch with the reality of the U.S.’s reliance on immigrants and immigrant labor. Under the current system, hard working, tax-paying immigrants without documentation are forced to live in the shadows, vulnerable to abuse at home and in the workplace. Undocumented immigrant students, often brought by their families to the U.S. at a young age, cannot attend college or share their skills in the U.S. labor force because they lack proper documentation. Immigrant families must also endure the hardship of separation from their loved ones due to long visa waiting periods and processing delays that can last up to twenty years.
BAIRC supports efforts that:
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Provide permanent residency, by legalizing immigrant workers regardless of status, students and their families. |
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Keep families together by investing public funds where they are needed most – in eliminating the growing immigration backlog and barriers to family reunification, rather than in supporting misguided enforcement attempts. |
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Uphold the right of same sex couples to family-based immigration. |
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Fix the draconian 1996 Act to restore fairness and due process to legal permanent residents in immigration legal proceedings, eliminate misdemeanors as deportable offenses, and make discretionary relief available |
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Uphold the due process rights of asylum seekers |
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| Ensure economic justice and workers’ rights, including: |
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Rejecting guest worker proposals that make undocumented workers vulnerable to employer abuses and exploitation and pit immigrant workers against U.S. workers. |
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Rejecting English-only policies in the workplace, and making workplace policies related to health and safety accessible to all regardless of language barriers. |
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Eliminating workplace and housing raids that destabilize families, violate constitutional and civil rights, and undermine fair wages and safe working conditions |
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Overturning the Hoffman Plastics ruling to restore the right to organize to undocumented workers |
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Rejecting employer sanctions that in reality punish workers and criminalize immigrant labor |
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Upholding Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for All
Since September 11, 2001, lawmakers have poured millions of dollars into the enforcement of over-reaching immigration policies – policies that increase the militarization of our borders, sanction workplace raids and harassment, undermine public trust between local authorities and immigrant communities, and erode the due process rights of all. These sweeping enforcement policies have undermined our security, separated families, and stripped away the very liberties and rights that make our nation a democracy.
BAIRC believes that our local communities and nation are more vibrant when immigrant families are safe and able to share their many contributions with the rest of society. Therefore, we support efforts to:
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Restore and protect fundamental and due process rights at the core of the United States’ democratic values. |
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Allow local authorities to serve our communities and keep them out of the business of federal immigration law enforcement. |
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Adopt policies and practices that put an end to racial and ethnic profiling. |
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Refute distorted representations of immigrants as criminals, and |
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Recognize the important roles immigrants play in strengthening our communities and country. |
Access to Services and Political Participation
Immigrants and their families contribute to every sector of California’s economy, on average paying more in taxes than they ever receive in services. Immigrants in California pay approximately $4.5 billion in state taxes each year; their federal tax contribution is more than $30 billion annually.
Immigrants who fall on hard times should have access to the very safety net programs that are supported by their tax dollars. Despite eligibility for such programs, immigrants often face numerous barriers that prevent them from enrolling in those services such as lack of awareness of existing programs, fears that utilizing services could impact their immigration status, a lack of translated materials and interpretation services, and confusion about eligibility requirements. As contributing members to our state and our nation, immigrants deserve to access services with safety and dignity. Under the current situation, many immigrants are unable to obtain identification such as a driver’s license to take their children to school or to the hospital during emergencies. Additionally many immigrants are disenfranchised from the political process. Even when eligible to vote, immigrants often do not vote in proportion to their numbers. With the right tools, we can eliminate barriers to political engagement – including the lack of multilingual voter information – while increasing the power and representation of immigrants and their children who make up more than half of California’s population.
BAIRC supports efforts to:
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Eliminate linguistic and cultural barriers that prevent full and equal access to services and the political process for low-income, limited-English proficient immigrants. |
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Protect and maintain access to critical safety net programs for all immigrants. |
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Allow all immigrants to obtain identification, such as driver’s licenses, so they can access services with dignity. |
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Increase immigrant voter registration, education and turn out on Election Day. |
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Increase accountability of elected officials and other policy makers to immigrant communities. |
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