Will Continue to Work to Expand Human Rights and Due Process Protections
Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) applauds the U.S. Senate’s Gang of Eight for introducing immigration legislation that offers a roadmap to citizenship for millions of hard-working aspiring Americans living in the United States without immigration status.
Although it’s not perfect, the proposed Senate bill S.744, titled the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013,” makes significant positive changes to our country's immigration system. It provides appointed counsel for unaccompanied immigrant children and mentally ill individuals in deportation proceedings, strengthens human rights protections for immigrants in detention, and vastly expands access to legal orientation programs for detained immigrants. It also offers a roadmap to citizenship that includes thousands of families torn apart by deportation and repeals the asylum one-year deadline.
“Congress has an historic opportunity to pass an immigration law that relieves the severe pressure our justice system and communities have felt in recent years,” said NIJC Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy. “As an advocacy organization that has provided legal counsel to low-income immigrants for nearly 30 years, NIJC is committed to fighting for additional reforms that promote family unity and protect the due process and human rights of all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.”
NIJC’s staff of experienced immigration lawyers are reviewing the proposed legislation and are available, along with their clients, to provide analysis and commentary on how the law is likely to play out in practice. Lawyers are available for comment from Chicago and Washington, D.C. To arrange interviews, contact Tara Tidwell Cullen at ttidwellcullen@heartlandalliance.org or (312) 660-1337.
Download a PDF of the full Senate bill: Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013