Federal
1. Build a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, families, and students
2. Unite immigrant families by ending visa backlogs and providing legal channels for immigration
3. Tear down the second wall to citizenship by reducing the application fee and diminishing gridlock in background checks and processing
4. End the appalling treatment of immigrants in detention centers who are jailed without due process and held in inhumane conditions
State
1. Integrate immigrants into our economy by expanding access to English classes and the citizenship process
2. Driver’s certificates for undocumented immigrant drivers
Our nation is built on certain basic values that should apply to everyone: freedom, hard work, fairness, democracy, inclusion, respect for differences, and humane treatment for the vulnerable. Immigrants come to our country to share in these values and help build and participate in our communities. The New Americans Democracy Project seeks to exercise the power of immigrants in our democracy to bring our country closer into line with these basic values and benefit our entire community. The following platform lists the principles which are fundamental to
our project.
Federal issues
1. Build a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, families, and students
Twelve million immigrants in the United States are prevented from fully contributing to our society and participating in our democracy because they lack legal status. Immigrants who are merely trying to work to support themselves and their families are under constant threat of arrest, detention, and deportation, and of being separated from their families and communities. Students who would otherwise have bright futures as doctors, teachers, and other trained professionals are thwarted from developing their full talents and realizing their dreams. Our nation needs to offer a path for these immigrants to earn legal status and eventually become full citizens.
2. Unite immigrant families by ending visa backlogs and providing legal channels for immigration
Our broken immigration system offers only limited ways to come to the country legally.
Even though immigrants who qualify through family relationships or work sponsorship must wait years in multi-year backlogs and endure torturous paperwork processing. Brothers and sisters of US citizens must wait at least twelve years to immigrate. We need to fix our immigration laws to provide more opportunities to those who want to come to rejoin their families and to work to do so legally.
3. Tear down the second wall to citizenship by reducing the application fee and diminishing gridlock in background checks and processing
After unwisely increasing citizenship fees by 70% last summer, US Citizenship and Immigration Services failed to prepare for the surge of applications from immigrants trying to beat the increase. As a result, waiting times for citizenship have more than doubled, and hundreds of thousands of immigrants will be unable to get naturalized in time to vote this fall. Still more applicants are on hold due to unnecessary name checks that have targeted Arab immigrants and other populations. We need to tear down this “second wall” blocking citizenship for thousands of immigrants and preventing them from fully participating in our democracy.
4. End the appalling treatment of immigrants in detention centers who are jailed without due process and held in inhumane conditions.
Recent articles in national media outlets have detailed the shocking conditions in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is holding immigration detainees. Dozens of detainees have died in custody, while others go without adequate medical care. Immigrants have been separated from their families, including nursing mothers torn from their infant children. After the recent raid in Postville, Iowa, hundreds of detainees were held in a cattle fairground for weeks while awaiting their court dates. We need to reconsider our detention policies so that fewer immigrants will be separated from their families, and we need to restore humanity to the way we treat those whom we do detain.
State issues
1. Integrate immigrants into our economy by expanding access to English classes and the citizenship process
Illinois is home to 1.8 million immigrants, 14% of the entire state population. The State has already taken many steps to enable immigrants to contribute to our economy and set down roots in our community. The State can accelerate this integration process by bolstering its funding for English classes, which offer immigrants a key building block on the path to success in the United States. The State can also work with community organizations, through the New Americans Initiative, to expand outreach and services for immigrants who want to take the ultimate step in becoming Americans, applying for US citizenship.
2. Driver’s certificates for undocumented immigrant drivers
Half a million Illinois drivers cannot get licenses to drive legally because they lack legal status. These drivers must get to work, shop, take their children to school, and tend all the other transportation needs that everyone else must meet. As a matter of public safety, we should make sure that these drivers know the rules of the road, get tested, get licensed, get insured, and otherwise get prepared to drive safely. Illinois should provide driving documents to the undocumented so all motorists will benefit.