Time to Start Over with Humane Reform

AFSC Responds to the Senate Vote Blocking Immigration Bill

Read the full press release>.

A failed vote on potential immigration reform legislation closed, for now, the possibility of critical improvements to the nation's obsolete and broken immigration system.

AFSC calls on Congress to return to the bipartisan table and to pursue legislation that includes a path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants and keeps immigrant families together.

"The proposed legislation would have torn families apart, separating workers from loved ones," says Esther Nieves, AFSC's director of immigrant and refugee rights. "It increased the money the country wastes on border fences and agents, where we've squandered $440 billion in the past 12 years to create a humanitarian crisis on the border. It's time for sensible, humane policies, not more punitive posturing."

This week, an independent national survey conducted for AFSC found that a strong majority of the U.S. public believes that the broken, outdated immigration system needs fixing and that scapegoating immigrants and building more border fences are not the answer. The study also found that the vast majority of the U.S. public does not view immigrants as a threat to their jobs or safety.

AFSC stands with the majority of the public in hoping for effective and humane immigration reform. AFSC and its partners in immigrant communities nationwide continue to call upon Congress and the Bush administration to include immigrants as equal members and contributors in any future policy debate and to develop a sound immigration policy as soon as possible.

AFSC will continue to advocate with immigrant communities on behalf of immigrant rights and will work with local partners in 20 sites nationwide to end anti-immigrant raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, racial profiling and anti-immigrant discrimination.