September 22, 2024
Dear editor;
Why do immigrants come to the United States? They come to join their families, to work, and to seek safety and refuge from war, violence, and natural disasters.
These reasons speak to the basic human needs of every living person: The need to be with the people we love, to provide shelter, food and health care for our families, and to be free from tyranny.
Too many Americans are led to believe that immigrants are a problem. But the problem is not these immigrants or the reasons they come to the United States to live. The problem is that the United States has no objective and organized process for these individuals to come here legally.
The United States has never had a single, coherent law that creates and manages a true immigration system. Instead, the United States has a haphazard “system” historically based on a collection of restrictive, exclusionary laws (for example, the Chinese Exclusion Act) and a confusing set of ill-defined and ill-understood classifications such as refugee, migrant, asylum-seeker, legal or documented immigrants, and undocumented immigrants, illegals or illegal aliens.
The League of Women Voters believes that immigration policies should promote reunification of immediate families; meet the economic, business and employment needs of the United States; and be responsive to those facing political persecution or humanitarian crises.
There are more than 10 million immigrants living in the United States without authorized documentation. The United States should provide these individuals with a legal pathway to permanent protection that will:
- Remove the cloud of deportation threat and alleviate the constant stress of living with fear and uncertainty.
- Allow Immigrants to openly play crucial roles that ensure the economic stability of the United States.
- Accept immigrants into the greater United States community, so that they can contribute to and be assimilated into American culture and customs.
For years, United States immigration policy have been left to the executive branch, leading to inconsistent procedures and see-sawing approaches from one administration to the next. Only Congress has the power to enact laws that will promote integration of immigrants and provide pathways to citizenship. The time for immigration reform legislation is now!
Patti Lackman, Llona Steele, Tammy Caltagirone, co-presidents, League of Women Voters Central Kane County