Sign-on Letter to the House on The Family Reunification Act of 2001

Dear Representative:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to urge you to support the Family Reunification Act of 2001 (H.R. 1452), introduced by Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL). By doing so, you will signal your support for restoring the basic American values of justice, fairness and respect for families to our nation's immigration laws.

The Family Reunification Act of 2001 seeks to alleviate the hardships faced by long-term legal permanent residents and their families under the mandatory detention and deportation provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). These provisions indiscriminately subject any legal resident convicted of virtually any criminal offense to a ""one size fits all"" remedy of lifetime banishment from the United States, with no chance for a judge to determine whether such harsh punishment makes sense in a particular case.

Under IIRIRA, evidence of rehabilitation, length of residency, family and community ties, the seriousness of the offense, and the question of whether deportation in a particular case would truly further public safety are completely irrelevant as a matter of law. Veterans who have honorably served our country and young Americans who do not even remember their countries of birth have, regardless of the nature of their offense, been treated as harshly under our immigration laws as undocumented immigrants who have committed the most heinous, violent crimes.

The Family Reunification Act will allow our immigration system to sensibly distinguish the good from the bad during deportation proceedings by allowing an immigration judge to carefully consider whether deportation is appropriate in a particular case. Legal immigrants who are eligible to have their cases heard by an immigration judge could be released on bond if they are not dangerous or likely to flee, allowing them to continue living their lives in the time it takes for a final decision on their case to be reached.

H.R. 1452 ensures that no immigrant with a criminal conviction will avoid the prospect of deportation if they face deportation for their offense under current law. The bill simply ensures that immigrants - and only long-term, legal permanent residents at that - will receive a day in court once deportation hearings are underway. The Family Reunification Act is a modest, sensible approach to fixing the hardships caused by the 1996 immigration law reforms. Rather than repeal these laws, H.R. 1452 seeks to restore a measure of fairness and balance to the law.

Many individuals have already been torn from their loved ones. Every day immigrants are in jeopardy of being permanently separated from their children, spouses and parents. We urge you to restore fairness to our immigration law, to keep American families together, and to support this important bill.

Sincerely,

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
American Civic Association
American Civil Liberties Union
American Friends Service Committee, Great Lakes Region (Chicago, IL)
American Immigration Lawyers Association
American Jewish Committee
American Liberty Foundation
Amnesty International USA
Arab American Institute
Asian American Coalition
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Asian Law Caucus
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
African Immigrants Foundation
AIDS Legal Counsel of Chicago
Bridging The Gap Project (Atlanta, GA)
Carr & Mattes, PC (Lancaster, PA)
Caribbean Education Forum, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services
Center for Human Rights & International Justice (U.C. Hastings College of the Law)
Centro Comunitario Juan Diego (Chicago, IL)
Centro de Salud Familiar -- Pro Care Centers (Melrose Park, IL)
Centro Marina Fontanez (Chicago, IL)
Citizens and Immigrants for Equal Justice
Citizens for Kucinich in 2004
Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CA)
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations (Sacramento, CA)
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Detention Resource Project (Philadelphia, PA)
Episcopal Migration Ministries
Erie Neighborhood House (Chicago, IL)
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Gibbs Houston Pauw (Seattle, WA)
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Haitian American Immigrant Association (Chicago, IL)
Holy Cross Ministries (Salt Lake City, UT)
Hmong National Development, Inc.
IA-NE Immigrant Rights Network
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Immigrant Defense Project of the New York State Defenders Association
Immigration and Refugee Services of America/U.S. Committee for Refugees
Independent Monitoring Board
Indian American Center for Political Awareness
Interchurch Refugee and Immigration Ministries (Chicago, IL)
Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
International Institute of Connecticut (Bridgeport, CT)
International Institute of Erie, PA
International Institute of Los Angeles, CA
International Institute of San Francisco, CA
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (Chicago, IL)
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
Khmer Health Advocates, Inc. (West Hartford, CT)
Law Office of Gittel Gordon (Marina Del Rey, CA)
Law Office of Jodi Goodwin (Harlingen, TX)
Law Office of Susan Fortino-Brown (Chicago, IL)
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Legal Aid Society in New York City
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition
Mexican American Political Organization (Waukegan, IL)
National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association
National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
National Council of La Raza
National Immigration Forum
National Immigration Law Center
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Notre Dame Immigration Clinic
Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund
People For the American Way
Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (Boston, MA)
Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington Office
Project IRENE (Springfield, IL)
Service Employees International Union
Solidarity USA
Somali Family Care Network
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
South Asian Network (Los Angeles, CA)
Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning (Denver, CO)
The African Community Center (Denver, CO)
Town of Cicero (IL) Immigration Project
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Vermont Refugee Assistance
Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (Colchester, VT)
Vikram Badrinath, PC (Tucson, AZ)
Youth Co-op/IRSA (Miami, FL)