For Immediate Release: May 17, 2006
outlined his plan for enhanced border control and immigration reform. Missing
from the President’s speech – and from much of the congressional debate on
immigration reform – was any concern over proposed enforcement provisions that
will put at risk those who flee persecution and seek refuge in the
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">
congressional immigration bills contain sweeping enforcement provisions that
will endanger those who have fled political and religious persecution and sought
safe haven in this country,” said
Acer
program. “These proposals could
lead to the mistaken deportation of a victim of religious persecution from
survivor from Darfur, or the criminal prosecution of a pro-democracy activist
from
reiterated his commitment to increasing immigration detention and expanding the
use of a summary deportation process. This approach and the various
congressional proposals ignore the findings of the bi-partisan U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom, which found significant failings in the
government’s implementation of the summary process and concluded that asylum
seekers were inappropriately jailed in the
prison-like facilities.
House and the U.S. Senate to oppose provisions that undermine this country’s
commitment to refugees and put those who have fled from political and religious
persecution at risk of being deported back to danger.
provisions of concern, visit our website at: