|
| |
New Senate Immigration Subcommittee holds first
hearing
4/10/01
Washington Office Civil Rights/ Religious Liberties Mailing List
This information is provided by the National
Immigration Forum an immigration policy group in Washington DC.
---------------------------------------------------
On April 4th the Senate Immigration Subcommittee held
its first hearing under the Chairmanship of Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS).
The title of the hearing was "Immigration Policy: An
Overview," and was meant to set the tone for the Committee's work
for this year.
Sen. Brownback's opening statement could hardly have
been more positive. "...legal immigrants bring energy, vitality,
and innovation," the Senator said. "To harness the energy and
vitality of immigrants, we need to improve our current immigration
system." To that end, the Senator touched on issues he intends to
focus on. These include:
 | reform of the INS: legislation
that meets the needs of agricultural employers and workers |
| finding ways to attract people to rural
areas that are becoming depopulated: establishing a more
orderly migration process between the U.S. and Mexico |
| increasing refugee admissions:
implementation of the recently-passed sex trafficking law. |
Senator Durbin (D-IL), in his opening statement, also
noted a number of problems with our immigration system, and the need for
change. Among other things, he mentioned the harshness of the 1996 law
and the need to restore due process. He noted that fully 75% of the
calls for assistance from his constituents in Chicago are related to
immigration.
Testifying in this hearing were:
Warren Leiden, Berry Appleman & Leiden (and former
Executive Director of AILA)
Stephen Moore, Cato Institute
Jennifer Kenney, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Cecilia Munoz, National Council of La Raza
Karen Narasaki, National Asian Pacific American Legal
Consortium
Elizabeth Dickson, Ingersoll Rand and U.S. Chamber of
Commerce
Some of the highlights from the testimony:
Warren Leiden spoke of the need for updating our quota system, due to
the extensive quota backlogs that have built up in family- and
employment-based immigration. These backlogs are only compounded by
processing backlogs. Together, these backlogs are resulting in the
prospect of lengthy family separation on the one hand, and an incentive
to enter or stay in the US illegally on the other. Other problems that
Mr. Leiden urged the Committee to examine include expedited removal and
the one year deadline on asylum seekers.
Steven Moore spoke of the economic consequences of
immigration. He noted that the current period of high levels of
immigration have coincided with a period of unprecedented prosperity in
the U.S. On balance, immigration has been and continues to be good for
America. He noted that many industrialized countries will be
experiencing difficulties due to their falling birthrates, but that the
U.S. has the "demographic safety valve" of immigration.
Jennifer Kenney, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, spoke of
the problems with implementation of the H-1B program, including long
processing backlogs.
Cecilia Munoz, of the National Council of La Raza,
mentioned four policy topics to be debated this year that are important
from the perspective of Latinos, including reform of the INS to make the
INS more accountable in its services and enforcement; the bilateral
US/Mexico discussions and what form a guest worker program, if any,
might take and legalization of thosealready working in the U.S.;
unnecessary barriers to family unification, including income barriers
and barriers imposed by the more extreme provisions of the 1996
immigration law; and racial profiling.
Karen Narasaki, of the National Asian Pacific American
Legal Consortium, noted that close to 1/2 of the immigrants in the
family-based immigration backlog are Asian. The long family separation
imposed by the backlogs in family-based immigration, she noted, have an
impact in the employment-based arena, as immigrants with job prospects
here may be reluctant to be separated from their families for a long
time, and those who do come may be less productive because they must
deal with separation from their families.
Elizabeth Dicksen, of the manufacturing firm Ingersoll
Rand, spoke of worker shortages in sectors that have not received a lot
of attention by policy makers. Her company has had trouble recruiting,
for example, welders and electricians--skilled occupations for which
there is no category in our employment-based immigration system.
By the end of the hearing, the panelists had laid out
an ambitious list of issues for the Committee to consider. For his part,
Senator Brownback said he looked forward to working with the panelists
and others during the course of his tenure, and he stated his belief
that with some persistence and energy, the Committee will be able to
accomplish some of the changes needed.
|
| |
|
Visit
our lively
new website! |
|
GA actions
ratified (or not) by the presbyteries
A number of the most important actions of the 219th
General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries,
confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.
We provided resources to help inform the
reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.
Our three areas of primary interest have been:
|
Amendment 10-A,
which removes the current ban on
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender persons being considered as
possible candidates for ordination as elder or ministers.
Approved! |
|
Amendment 10-2,
which would add the Belhar Confession to our Book of
Confessions. Disapproved, because as an amendment
to the Book of Confessions it needed a 2/3 vote, and did not
receive that. |
|
Amendment
10-1, which adopts the new Form of Government
that was approved by the Assembly. Approved. |
|
| |
|
If you like what
you find here,
we hope you'll help us keep Voices for Justice going ... and
growing!
Please consider making a special
contribution -- large or small -- to help us continue and improve
this service.
Click here to send a
gift online, using your credit card, through PayPal.
Or send your check, made
out to "Presbyterian Voices for Justice" and marked "web site," to
our PVJ Treasurer:
Darcy Hawk
4007 Gibsonia Road
Gibsonia, PA 15044-8312 |
| |
|
Some blogs worth visiting |
|
PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
| |
|
Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
| |
|
John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
| |
|
John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
| |
|
Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
| |
|
