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Matt Cameron Profile picture
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18 Feb, 4 tweets, 1 min read
There will never be a comprehensive immigration reform bill which anyone will love, but from everything I've seen about this bill so far there is quite a lot to like. We're not going to have this chance again anytime soon, & it's worth passing just to fix some of the worst of '96
Hundreds of thousands married to US citizens w/USC kids have no choice but to remain undocumented under current law.

Millions have suffered badly over minor criminal issues which their states specifically did not intend to be convictions.

This bill would immediately help them
I have plenty of criticism for this bill, bc of course I do, but I still need to do a thorough read tonight.
@HMAesq's rundown is essential reading

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Matt Cameron Profile picture
19 Feb
1/ Let's talk about a few small but vital parts of the #USCitizenshipAct which may not make the kinds of headlines a pathway to citizenship does, but could make millions of people's lives better the day it passes.
2/ Before we do that, it is very important to me that you understand just how *bad* Joe Biden's immigration record is. It is not at all unfair to say that he is directly responsible for some of the worst stuff that this bill is only now undoing.

jacobinmag.com/2019/04/joe-bi…
3/ Let's start with the definition of the word "conviction."

Every state has some form of alternative sentencing designed to divert charges & keep people from the lifetime burden of a criminal record.

Congress (& Biden) didn't like this, and changed federal law accordingly.
Read 25 tweets
Matt Cameron Profile picture
17 Feb
Save yourself a click: it's "alien." The word is alien.

"Alien" is a 700-yr-old word good only for an imm. system based in 19th-century thinking. It is etymologically rooted in otherness, ideologically predicated in suspicion, & legally useless. Kill it

cnn.com/2021/01/21/pol…
"Alien" doesn't just mean someone who is not a U.S. citizen. It very literally emphasizes strangeness. Otherness. Not belonging.

I'd prefer to use "non-citizen" for the same reason that Robert Law would prefer that @axios use "former Trump official" instead of "sociopath" ImageImage
Take this @CBP story from a few days ago about the rescue of "aliens in distress," including an "alien female trapped in thick vegetation." This kind of language fuels the industrialized world's largest, cruelest, & least humane law enforcement agency.

cbp.gov/newsroom/local…
Read 7 tweets
Matt Cameron Profile picture
15 Feb
1/ I just listened to the complete record of a case in which an #immigrationjudge denied an #asylum claim for a gay ICE detainee from El Salvador, and it is an absolutely textbook model of why we need appointed counsel in deportation proceedings. Keep reading for the lowlights.
2/ This man came to the US in '89 after yrs of persecution on account of his sexuality. As if threats he was getting from gang members who bullied him with homophobic slurs almost daily weren't enough, he was also afraid of an abusive partner. An uncle was killed for being gay
3/ Once he came to the US, he found love, community, and a chance at being able to live openly as who he is. He never looked back. He had legal status for most of the time he was in the US, and only a minor misdemeanor relating to disorderly conduct.
Read 14 tweets
Matt Cameron Profile picture
2 Feb
Stephen Miller had no real talent for policy or people, but brought one enormous advantage in his 4-yr mission to remake US immigration: he wanted to get it done.

If immigration were an actual Biden priority we'd have an actual bill in Congress rn. We don't even have a draft.
For the last 4 yrs Dems knew that (1) Trump's immigration policies were enormously unpopular with all but the most unreachable MAGA base and (2) they would inevitably at some point be back in power and able to pass legislation.

And we don't even have a draft.
Weeks before the inauguration Joe Biden began signaling that immigration would not be a priority for his administration bc those of us who have seen what this system does to ppl and know that change can't wait were asking too much too loudly.

But there was never even a draft.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Cameron Profile picture
27 Jan
FYI this* is a common white nationalist talking point used to justify massive federal intrusions into state and local affairs and no one who uses this language should be taken seriously or in good faith

--
*see also "every county is a border county"
Counterpoint: only some counties are border counties.

Hope this helps!
More importantly: border counties are probably safer than where you live

texastribune.org/2016/02/23/bor…
Read 4 tweets
Matt Cameron Profile picture
26 Jan
Okay, you might be asking, but didn't federal courts shut down or otherwise limit most of Trump's big immigration policies? Isn't this the same thing?

Hey, thanks for asking.

No.
The executive has all of the power over how, when, where, & why it chooses to enforce immigration law. A state can't just demand that feds enforce it the way that the state would prefer, any more than it can demand them to issue a Gary Buse commemorative stamp or invade Australia
Read 8 tweets

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