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The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), representing a state-wide coalition of more than 80 organizations, has released a statement responding to news that U.S. Senate members have come to a compromise on immigration reform.
Some concerns with the deal are the legislation’s family provisions and the lack of opportunity for guestworkers to become citizens. From the release:
First, the architecture of the deal includes appalling provisions driven by Republican Senators that would fundamentally undo the family immigration system created in 1965. This deal would replace that system with a “rich man’s immigration system” that would shift preferences to high-skilled, English speaking people, and deny American citizens and immigrants the opportunity to bring loved family members into this nation. This is a violation of real family values, and destroys a fundamental, longstanding principle of American immigration policy. The Senators should recognize that many of them would not be in this country under the immigration system they are proposing.
Second, the deal would not allow for a path to citizenship for future ‘guestworkers,’ thereby creating a two-tier labor market that could undermine worker protections for all Americans. Such an approach would recreate problems of the disastrous bracero program, depress wages and working conditions for U.S. workers, and would be fundamentally inconsistent with American values of fair play and equal treatment.
CIRC also says that such problems must be fixed before real comprehensive reform is accomplished.
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