AFSC San Diego - SAN DIEGO HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE REJECTS WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL FOR IMMIGRATION “REFORM” AS PUNITIVE, REPRESSIVE, & EXTREME

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Contact
August 10, 2007
Pedro Rios, Director
US/Mexico Border Program
AFSC San Diego
619/233-4114 - office
619/370-5908 - mobile
SAN DIEGO HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE REJECTS WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL FOR
IMMIGRATION “REFORM” AS PUNITIVE, REPRESSIVE, & EXTREME
AFSC Projects that Civil & Human Rights Violations will Increase Exponentially
San Diego (August 10, 2007) – The San Diego Area Office of the American Friends Service
Committee (AFSC) strongly rejects the recently introduced series of “reforms” presented by
the Bush Administration that purport to “improve” immigration and border issues. The
proposed changes represent a misguided enforcement strategy that are sure to intensify civil
and human rights abuses, and that offer no commitment for constructive and realistic
solutions to immigration laws.
The series of “reforms” are divided into various categories, including “Border Security,”
“Interior Enforcement,” and “Worksite Enforcement,” where existing policies have
exacerbated deaths along the border, separated families, and unjustly targeted low-income
workers who serve as a backbone for many essential industries. The reform package also
encourages “streamlining” problematic guest-worker programs and denying work credits for
undocumented workers in the Social Security Administration system.
On Border Enforcement
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, the series of reforms include the following problematic measures:
• 20, 000 new Border Patrol agents by 2009;
• 370 miles of fencing;
• 300 miles of vehicle barriers;
• 105 camera and radar towers;
• 4 unmanned aerial vehicles by 2009;
• 31, 500 detention beds;
• Increase mis-labeling of youth as “gang” members so as to deny entry; and,
• Add additional biometric technology for tracking purposes.
Border enforcement measures have already led to a human rights catastrophe in the
Southwest region of the United States, where at least 4300 men, women, children have
perished as a result of a series of operations that funnel people into treacherous desert and
mountainous terrain. Billions of dollars, increased personnel, tactical and material strategies
have not stopped the flow of migration, and increased bed space will only lead to more
abuses in detention centers as recently highlighted by prominent civil rights organizations.
Criminalizing youth and increasing measures suggestive of a police-state will not lead to
community safety or practical solutions for deterring abuses.
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Source: White House Office of Communications, 8/10/07
Page 2
The changes to Interior Enforcement measures that are most troubling include:
• Deputizing local law enforcement officers for immigration enforcement purposes;
• Increasing ICE teams for the purposes of conducting community-specific raids;
• Limit due process procedures and adding fines for migrants attempting to defend their
immigration case in court.
Recent interior enforcement operations have led to an increase of family separation, where
children are left without their parents and where migrants detained are exposed to racial-
profiling, military-style detention standards, and other egregious civil and human rights
violations. These have included ICE operations as well as haphazard enforcement by local
police agencies that lack an understanding of the complex immigration legal system. Interior
enforcement as proposed will serve to destabilize migrant communities and create a lack of
trust for police forces in general.
Proposed provisions for Worksite Enforcement include:
• Dramatically overhauling Social Security Administration “no-match” program that will
severely penalize employers, and consequently hurt working families;
• Limit documents permitted to be used for seeking and establishing eligibility for
employment in the United States;
• Increase investigations of against employers identified as employing undocumented
workers, especially those under contract with the federal government; and,
• Seek-out partnerships with other institutions, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles,
for the purposes of mining for information that could assist in investigative matters.
The AFSC maintains that it is a basic human right to work, and therefore, measures that deny
a person’s ability to seek employment are infringing on human rights. The proposed
employment enforcement measures will exacerbate exploitative conditions for undocumented
workers, as well as increase privacy concerns for information mining. Recent ICE raids at
workplaces have led to civil and human rights abuses and have generated fear for migrant
and Latino communities in general. These proposed measure will further create distrust of
institutions working with or perceived to be working with federal immigration authorities.
“The Administration is proposing destabilization, repression, and insecurity as an immigration
reform package,” stated Pedro Rios, Director of the San Diego Area Office, “Instead of
looking for real solutions around economic policies that the US promotes and that generate
migration, we now face the archetype policing model for a police-state.”
AFSC rejects these measures and will support immigrant and refugee communities in their
efforts to secure constructive and genuine immigration reform and the protection of their
fundamental and inalienable universal and civil rights. Our spirit-led actions will be guided by
our commitment to peace and justice and the equal treatment of every individual regardless
of their immigration status in the United States.
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