Fix our immigration system - pass comprehensive immigration reform

Since the new Congress was sworn into office, there has been a flurry of activity, mostly behind the scenes, to enact a comprehensive immigration reform that the President is willing to sign. A coalition of strange bedfellows have finally come together to realize a compromise that we can all live with. Business and union leaders, conservative and liberal alike see immigration reform as key to securing this country once and for all.

Compromise is the key word here, because I don’t think any single constituency is going to be ecstatic at the prospect of having a new immigration law.

Immigration restrictioners are not going to be happy since they view any type of compromise as giving yet another general amnesty to millions of undocumented workers in our country. [The last amnesty was passed and signed into law by President Reagan in 1986]. These folks are more inclined to support border control laws and mass deportations efforts by USICE.

Immigrant advocates aren’t going to get everything they want either. For example, the HIV exclusion laws are not being included right now in the massive immigration reform bill that is being considered. Knowing this, I, along with several of my colleagues, were in DC last month to remind members of congress how unfair and ineffective these laws are.

In our arsenal, we had a couple of infectious disease specialists who provided their opinions on how the HIV exclusion laws, which were designed back in the 1980’s in order to protect our society from an influx of HIV+ immigrants actually do not serve that purpose at all. The physicians’ point of discussion during our meetings was that a majority of HIV infected individuals actually are infected in this country. And that by pushing these folks underground by not providing them with legal status and documentation actually prevents them from getting proper care and therapy. This in turn will perhaps make them more prone to engage in behavior that may result in new HIV infections in the general public. So in short, the exclusion laws do not protect us; in fact they work against us.

The general assumption now is that nothing will be done on the immigration front prior to the summer recess. Congressional members will use their summer holiday to hear directly from their constituents about what needs to be done. Once again, the restrictionists will be very loud, both in the media and behind the scenes to limit reform to essentially building a wall between this country and the rest of the world. It is incumbent upon the rest of us to make this last ditch effort to have our voices heard by our federal representatives before any final decisions are made.

If no action is taken by Fall 2007, the consensus is that nothing will be done until the next president is sworn into office. So, please contact your federal representatives regarding the issue of immigration reform. Having 12 million undocumented individuals affects all of us.