Just a reminder that Reagan's 1986 legalization program extended a path to citizenship to anyone who had worked on a farm for more than 90 days in the preceding year.
We can absolutely do this.
We can absolutely do this.
Approximately 1/4 of the entire healthcare workforce was not born in the United States.
~27K of them have #DACA. Many more have greencards or have naturalized.
But do you really think *all* of them are working legally? Why does it possibly matter to you at this point?
~27K of them have #DACA. Many more have greencards or have naturalized.
But do you really think *all* of them are working legally? Why does it possibly matter to you at this point?
Immigrants shouldn't have to risk their lives to prove their worth. But absolutely no one should have to live with the unimaginable stress of working in or around the front lines of this pandemic *while also knowing that they could be deported anytime.*
Congress should create a special pathway to citizenship for anyone producing our food supply and working anywhere near the healthcare system as of the date that WHO declared this a global pandemic, and they should do that now.
But they absolutely won't, so here's another way:
But they absolutely won't, so here's another way:
We already have "parole-in-place" for family members of military servicemembers so that they can deploy into dangerous conditions w/o having to worry about dealing w/deportation. (Sound familiar?)
It could be extended to these workers in a few words
uscis.gov/military/discr…
It could be extended to these workers in a few words
uscis.gov/military/discr…
P-i-P continues the long American tradition of retroactively extending a lawful entry to undocumented workers. There's has been some version of this for nearly the entire history of the American immigration system. It's really not much to ask at all.
P-i-P is especially vital for farmworkers, as most entered without permission and therefore have no way to easily gain residency--even if married to a US citizen. But even with no other basis for a visa, this program gives them a work permit and protects them from deportation.
However, quite a few of the healthcare workers I represent did enter with visas and have been out of status for many years. P-i-P would not be available to them (it only cures an unlawful entry), but deferred action (the basis for #DACA) would be. Easy stuff.
I am all for a long-term campaign to put every one of these workers on a path to citizenship and it would be more than worth the fight, but these two simple administrative actions are things that Trump could do *today.* Like, today today.
For most of the relatively short time in US history in which we've had an immigration system at all, "legality" has been a mere administrative convenience. Today we treat it like a tattoo, pretending that today's undocumented could get into some kind of magic "line" to remove it
My great-grandfather stood in line at Ellis Island in 1916 and like everyone else who came before '24, was allowed in without a visa. That's how my family did it "the right way." The only "lines" are the ones we make, & nearly all of these workers don't have one. Now's the time.
And ICYMI, Trump has pretty much already done the opposite of this: putting more immigrants in harm's way by forcing them back into (let's be honest here) non-essential meatpacking jobs while shielding their employers for liability.
"True to form, America still wants it both ways. It wants to be fed. And it wants to demonize the undocumented immigrants who make that happen."
nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opi…
nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opi…
