Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Calls on the U.S. Senate to Fix Bad Immigration Deal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 21, 2007
1:17 PM

CONTACT: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) 
   
 
ACORN Calls on the U.S. Senate to Fix Bad Immigration Deal
Urges Senate to Amend Legalization and Worker Programs
 

WASHINGTON - MAY 21 - Last week, Senate leaders unveiled the key components of an agreement on a comprehensive immigration reform measure that the full U.S. Senate is expected to debate this week. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is concerned that the current agreement creates an unfair and unworkable path to legalization as well as a guestworker program that exploits immigrant workers and adversely affects the wages and workplace conditions for U.S. workers.

"Given that the American public has waited long enough for our broken immigration system to be fixed, we had higher expectations that a workable bi- partisan solution would be reached. Unfortunately, the Senate has conceded too much on families, workers, and communities," said ACORN President Maude Hurd.

The Senate has announced that it will vote to proceed to the bill today (Monday) at 5:30 pm EDT and will likely spend the next few days debating amendments to improve or further worsen the bill.

ACORN, along with other organizations, is calling on the Senate to fix the underlying agreement by approving amendments that adhere to the principles of real comprehensive immigration reform. Specifically, the Senate should act to provide the following:

-- A fair and workable path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. by eliminating burdensome provisions, such as requiring heads of households to return to their country of origin for processing.

-- Protections for all workers, both native and foreign-born, by rejecting any guestworker program that does not provide a means for workers to become permanent residents and enjoy full wage and labor protections.

-- A means for families to stay together by rejecting a point system that destroys family-based immigration.

"If the Senate fails to improve this starter bill, ACORN, as an organization that represents both low-wage workers and immigrant families, will have no choice but to strongly oppose this bill," added Hurd.

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, with over 350,000 member families organized into 800 neighborhood chapters in 103 cities across the country. (ACORN -- an acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- should be used on first reference.) Learn more at http://www.acorn.org .

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