Comprehensive immigration reform that does not keep families together is not comprehensive immigration reform. I really don’t care about "securing America’s border" or some new biometric social security card. In fact, I don’t care for any of the enforcement items in the Democrats’ new immigration proposal.
What I care about are people. Immigrants are people just like you or me. In my opinion their immigration status is secondary to this fact. They need to be treated with common decency. The affront to this that I find most troubling is the way that our current system rips families apart. A child should never have their mother or father taken away from them.
I am vehemently opposed to any bill that claims to be comprehensive immigration reform that will continue allowing families to be torn apart (does this make me a "family values" voter?). A few weeks back I wrote a diary about a family of mixed documentation that was now homeless and fatherless because of our cruel immigration laws. Any legislation that could not bring this family and others like it back together is not true reform.
While the Democrats’ plan includes the designation of "Lawful Prospective Immigrants" that could hold some families together, my biggest concern is with the provision prohibiting this status for persons who "have been convicted of any felony offense under Federal or State law (all offenses punishable with a term of imprisonment greater than one year), or three or more misdemeanors." This needs to have an exception if those offenses are immigration related, since many of the undocumented workers in this country have faced multiple deportations, some of which would make them ineligible. To allow this kind of double-jeopardy to tear families apart is unconscionable.
I urge each and every person here to call their legislators and demand immigration reform that will keep families together.