The GOP’s Project 2025 wants to make our immigration system even more inhumane. Senator Durbin is no powerhouse speaker, but he carefully outlines the facts about why the GOP is wrong about immigrants on all counts.
“There are areas throughout the country where immigration has become a lifeline in terms of maintaining population levels and younger workers coming into the labor market.”
– Doris Meissner, commissioner of the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
- (Cato Institute)“Our view is simple: people are the ultimate resource. New people are not threats to suppress but assets to celebrate… Fundamentally, immigrants aren’t competitors. They are collaborators. Unfortunately, America’s immigration system fails to recognize this fact, leading to catastrophic consequences.
- Immigrants can save the United States from population decline.…The U.S. population is growing slower than at any point in its history…Without immigration, the U.S. population will start to decline by the 2030s. Already in 2022, about half of all the counties in the United States saw declining populations.
- Immigrants can save America from labor force decline...Without immigrants, the working‐age population will fall by about 6 million in the next two decades. The total U.S. population would decline without any immigration by 2040.
- The costs of this decline are huge. The ratio of workers to retirees has plummeted since the 1960s, and the Social Security Trustees now estimate that Social Security will be short nearly 35 million workers to fund the system in the 2030s. It will have to cut benefits by at least 23 percent in 2034, if not earlier.
- The present value cost of this worker shortage to U.S. retirees is about $24 trillion... The Federal Reserve Board of Governors expects that the decline in population growth will cause economic growth to decline throughout OECD member countries, including the United States, increasing the burden of the U.S. debt….”
Action #1: Tell your legislators to vote “YES” on pro-citizenship bills!
Trump has promised to push through mass deportations in a guardrail-free second term, prioritizing fomenting xenophobia amongst his cult members who think their food and other essentials appear by magic, over any rational thought as to what the results of such actions would be, along with ending birthright citizenship. Even if he is sidelined somehow, the reality is this – “If a Republican wins in 2024, every mixed-status family in America could face the threat of separation” and our economy to suffer as well.
Minimal email/call script for representatives: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep. [___] to follow the lead of our Senators Padilla and Butler and push through H.R.1511 – Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929, along with H.R.1511 – Citizenship for Essential Workers Act. I also want to thank [Rep. Brownley/Rep. Carbajal] for cosponsoring H.R.3194 – U.S. Citizenship Act. Whatever anyone thinks of his chances of winning another term, Trump’s threats to deport all undocumented workers, traumatizing mixed-status families and negatively affecting our economy with mass foreclosures, skyrocketing costs for food and loss of essential workers means we need to get this done now.
Minimal email/call script for senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Senator [Padilla /Butler] for their leadership on S.2606 – Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929. I would also like to [thank Sen. Padilla for his/ask Sen. Butler to support] S.1392 – Citizenship for Essential Workers Act. Trump’s threats to deport all undocumented workers, with the completely predictable damage to families and our economy, means the Senate needs to push this bill through now!
Also, the supplemental funding negotiations include near-impossible barriers to apply for asylum, dramatically expanding expedited removals, and undermining humanitarian and other forms of parole. Codifying these harmful changes, coupled with funding for immigration and border enforcement, would have devastating consequences for vulnerable people seeking safety. Please safeguard asylum and reject additional funding to ICE and CBP. Vote NO on the White House supplemental.
Bill Description:
- H.R.1511/S.2606 – Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 expands eligibility for the current Registry program by removing its outdated cutoff deadline of January 1, 1972. This would provide lawful permanent resident status (and a path to citizenship!) to long-term residents of good character who’ve lived in the U.S. for at least 7 years, including undocumented individuals.
- H.R. 3043/ S.1392 – Citizenship for Essential Workers Act – Gives a green card to individuals who earned income at any point during the COVID-19 emergency period doing work deemed essential by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or a state or local government. An individual may also be eligible if that individual is a parent, spouse, or child of (1) an eligible individual who died from COVID-19, or (2) a member of the Armed Forces.
- H.R.3194 – U.S. Citizenship Act – This bill establishes a new status of lawful prospective immigrant. This status shall be available to an applying noncitizen who meets certain requirements, including being continually present in the United States from January 1, 2023.
Contacts (Pick yours) Keep calling until a live person picks up.
Action #2: Tell Joe to give work permits to our workers who’ve been here for years!
Email President Biden here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Here’s what we’re sending. Take what you want, and talk about how the immigration issue affects your family.
Dear Joe,
Please don’t give in to the GOP’s demands to close off asylum. They want you and our economy to fail. The right answer is 180° opposite and you need to frame it that way. Not only is asylum an international right, but it is good for our country. America has always needed new people and more labor, but the issue is critical now, as our population is aging and diminishing. Researchers think nearly U.S. cities will face noticeable depopulation by 2100, , and we’re not the only ones. Towns in Italy are selling foreigners low-priced homes and by next year, there might be 11 million empty houses in Japan.
But we have a potential resource they don’t have. While U.S. employers are searching for more workers, there are many willing and able souls waiting for their chance at becoming part of America, just as our forebears did. Whatever funding you can use to expand the process of getting people through our border and ready to work is an investment in our future.
It is much appreciated that Homeland Security granted TPS to the Venezuelans who arrived recently, making it easier for them to get authorization to work in the U.S.. This will take financial strain off their hosting cities here and provide a much needed addition to area workforces.
But you know what would allow huge economic gains, plus savings on immigration enforcement actions? Unleashing the full economic potential of the undocumented residents among us by giving them work permits as well, estimated at up to $1.7 TRILLION over the next decade. Some have been here for decades providing the essential services that keep our communities running, including a man with this PBS video with a message to you – don’t leave hard workers like him behind. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5lvR8tvImg). And don’t listen to the GOP. Trump wants us to crash. Ignore them and make us soar.
Project 2025 TLDR on Immigrants!
Project 2025 is bad enough. But Trump will add his own touches to keep his promises to his followers.
“Immigrants are bad,” despite the fact they support our economy, we’d be in a dysfunctional tailspin if they leave, and in fact we need more of them in our rapidly aging workforce.
- Use the army for border protection (because…drugs)
- “Investigate” the Afghan evacuees we rescued from the Taliban.
- Put unaccompanied minors who cross the border in tent camps.
- Make it harder to get asylum.
- Remove visas given to victims of trafficking unless they “cooperate” with law enforcement.
- Repeal Temporary Protected Status, which is given to people in genuine danger while asylum proceedings take place.
- Deny student loans if your school allows undocumented immigrants to have in-state tuition (to discourage students from attending those schools)
- Finish the Border Wall. Now. Because of drugs or something.
Fuller analysis of Project 2025’s immigration platform here.
Action: “Think your ancestors came here legally and ‘waited their turn’? Think again. Your ancestors were very likely undocumented immigrants, too.”
Americans are thrilled by DNA tests that reveal unexpectly exotic origins, and there’s now a multi-million dollar “heritage” travel industry to visit where our forebears were lucky to escape from! But we don’t study how our forebears became U.S. citizens and whether they were welcome here.
(Irishcentral.com) “As happens every time policies and practices against undocumented immigrants dominate the news, this week a vast array of memes and messages have been circulating from Americans who believe that their immigrant ancestors have nothing in common with today’s undocumented immigrants.
Why? Because their ancestors came to the US legally and, as is often claimed, “waited their turn,” [and] “didn’t ask for any handouts.”
It’s a popular argument, but a quick look at the history of immigration history in the US reveals that it does not make any sense. Did your ancestors arrive in the US before WWI? Then they were very likely undocumented too. When Annie Moore, the first immigrant to be processed through Ellis Island, arrived there from Ireland on January 1, 1892, she would not have been asked for a visa or a passport. Instead, ship’s captains handed over the manifests and vouched for the names and origins of their passengers.
The Immigration Act of 1917 put in place further restrictions, barring those who were physically or mentally ill and imposing a literacy test – reading 30 – 40 words in your native language – on all those above the age of 16, in addition to barring immigration from much of Asia and the Pacific Islands.
The concept of being documented didn’t arrive until the mid-1920s. The first widely restrictive legislation came with the National Origins Act of 1924, which established visa requirements and regional quotas, with especially restrictive measures for those from Asian and Eastern European countries. However, many hopeful immigrants continued to enter the US illegally during this time, something the US eventually acknowledged and allowed for…
…As noted in a Philadelphia Inquirer article on the same topic: “Responding to the nation’s large number of undocumented immigrants, the federal government implemented the 1929 Registry Act, which allowed them to register as permanent residents for $20 if they could prove they had lived in the country since 1921 and were of “good moral character.” More than 115,000 registered from 1930 to 1940, at least 200,000 more after that.”…
…If your family has been in America for generations, your original immigrant ancestor was essentially crossing an open border, had a more than 98% chance of being admitted to the US, and an easy enough pathway to becoming a naturalized citizen.
Resources
(cmsny.org) How Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan Would Hurt the United States
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