GREETINGS OF PEACE FROM:
Kareem M. Irfan
Council Of Islamic Organizations Of Greater Chicago (www.CIOGC.org)
A federation of Islamic institutions serving over 400,000 Chicago-area Muslim Americans 330 E. Roosevelt, G5, Lombard, IL 60148;
Phone: 630.629.7490;
Fax: 630.629.7492;
Email: [email protected]
9/29/04
ILLINOIS COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS
36 S. Wabash, suite 1425 · Chicago, IL 60603 · 312.332.7360 voice ·
312.332.7044 fax · www.icirr.org
ICIRR Action Alert
House Republican 9-11 Bill Attacks Immigrants
Hastert, Hyde Among Bill’s Supporters
As Congress rushes to finish its major business before Election Day, the
Republican leadership in the House has developed a bill that, it claims, would pass into law many of the changes recommended by the 9-11 Commission. However, this bill, HR 10, includes many provisions that
attack immigrants and go far beyond what the Commission advised. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (whose district includes Kane County and much of the western suburbs) is the lead sponsor of the bill. Its other sponsors include Rep. Henry Hyde, whose district is made up of much of
DuPage County and some parts of northwest Cook County.
Among other things, HR would would do the following:
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prevent federal workers from accepting consular identification cards (such as Mexican matricula consulars) or state driver’s licenses from noncitizens as proof of their identity;
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bar federal workers from accepting any driver’s license and birth certificate for any official purpose unless it meets certain new federal standards;
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vastly expand the power of immigration officers to use streamlined “expedited removal” procedures to deport undocumented immigrants;
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impose tougher standards on individuals who seek asylum in the US;
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enable the federal government to deport individuals who came to the US on valid visas that are later revoked, and prevent these people from appealing the revocations (even when the revocation is based on false or incorrect information);
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close off review of many immigration court decisions.
In addition, an early draft of the bill included parts of the proposed CLEAR Act, which would have required local and state police departments to enforce immigration laws. This language
was not included in the actual bill, but it could return as an amendment.
The 9-11 Commission itself insisted that our immigration system welcome immigrants and uphold our nation’s values of fairness and justice:
Our borders and immigration system, including law enforcement, ought to send a message of welcome, tolerance, and justice to members of immigrant communities in the United States and in their countries of origin. We should reach out to immigrant communities. Good
immigration services are one way of doing so that is valuable in every way-including intelligence. (section 12.4 of the 9-11 Commission report, page 390)
Instead, Hastert and the other House leaders have gone far beyond the
Commission’s recommendations. They are using the 9-11 bill as an opportunity to push through Congress many of the ideas that anti-immigrant members of Congress have been pushing. Indeed,
some of these proposals (such as restrictions on consular identification documents) have been rejected when they came up for votes in Congress. Even John Ashcroft has decided not to use the already
broad “expedited removal” authority that the laws have given him. Rather than take serious measures to address our nation’s shared concerns about terrorism, Hastert and his colleagues are going out of their way to push an anti-immigrant agenda.
WHAT TO DO
Please call your US Representative and urge him to vote NO on HR 10. You can reach your Representative’s Capitol Hill office by calling the House switchboard at 202 224-3121. You can also send a letter or email to your Representative by going to ICIRR’s website, www.icirr.org, and going to the “Take Action” section.
Please ALSO call Speaker Hastert’s district office, (630) 406-1114. Tell him that you are appalled that he and other House leaders would use a bill that should protect everyone in our nation from terrorism as a vehicle for attacking immigrants.
For more information, please call the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, (312) 332-7360, or visit www.icirr.org.