ISLAND VOICES
Anti-immigrant measures must be killed
By John Robert Egan
The current leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives has taken to new depths the strategy of attaching unrelated amendments to spending bills to get past the normal process of hearing and consideration.
The latest example of this underhanded approach is the REAL ID Act of 2005, which has passed the House and is being considered in the Senate, with a vote that could happen as early as this week. This provision, which includes a number of harsh anti-immigrant measures, has been tacked on to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill for the Iraq War and Asian Tsunami Relief, which must pass to fund those two critical needs.
The REAL ID amendment does not provide support to our troops, nor does it aid the victims of the worst natural disaster in recent history. Instead, it continues an unfortunate trend toward singling out immigrants for mistreatment and removes protections of law and fair play that all people within our borders should have a right to expect. For example, the REAL ID Act would:
• Increase the number of possible infractions that immigrants, even longtime lawful permanent residents, can be deported for, and make it possible to deport them before they have had a fair chance to challenge their deportation in court. It would not matter if the immigrant has a U.S. citizen family or not, or even whether he has served honorably in the U.S. armed services.
• Make it far more difficult for asylum seekers, even those escaping from religious persecution or victims of battering, to obtain the protection now provided by international refugee law, and take final decisions in many asylum cases out of the hands of qualified federal judges.
These, and other measures, are tucked into the REAL ID Act under the banner of making it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, which, it is argued, will make America safer from terrorists. None of these provisions will make us any safer, but they are sure to make the lives of immigrants and their families even more difficult than they already are. Apparently that's exactly what the anti-immigration forces in Congress, led by Reps. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., are after.
Depriving asylum seekers of fair review of their cases will lead to the denial of many potentially valid religious persecution claims, which is why an interchurch alliance of faith-based organizations has strongly opposed this measure. The drastic effect this amendment would have on legitimate immigrants and their families has led over 30 Asian Pacific American organizations to join together to urge that this amendment be cut from the spending bill.
The Senate has been considering amendments to the supplemental appropriations bill this past week, and it is important that Hawai'i's voice be heard. Our state is among the top five states in the United States in terms of the percentage of immigrants in our population, and most of this immigration is family-based and originates from the Asia Pacific region. These disastrous measures would have a disproportionate impact on our own families and communities, and would do nothing to make America safer.
In Hawai'i, we know that most immigrants have nothing to do with terrorism. In fact, immigrants are a valued part of our community, and for many of us here in Hawai'i, part of our families.
The effort to hide these mean-spirited anti-immigration measures in an emergency spending bill aimed at supporting our troops and aiding the victims of disaster is dishonest and counterproductive. The misleadingly named REAL ID Act is a bad idea. Our entire delegation to Congress should be united behind keeping it out of the final spending bill.
John Robert Egan is a Honolulu-based attorney who also teaches courses on refugee law and disaster management and humanitarian assistance at the University of Hawai'i. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.
