IMMIGRATION MATTERS: Unjust Deportation Policies Must Be Reformed, Too

While most lawmakers, media, immigrants and restrictionists have focused on legalization and guest worker programs for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, few have questioned the harsh deportation measures in the proposed bills. The "best" and "worst" bills consistently propose to:

* Deport long-term residents for increasingly minor crimes, even when they are green card holders, U.S. veterans, or the parents of American-born children

* Expand immigration detention facilities, using domestic military bases and for-profit prison facilities

* Overturn Supreme Court rulings and legalize the indefinite detention of non-citizens

* Turn local and state police into immigration agents

* Erect a massive border fence and further militarize our border communities

* Enable Homeland Security agents to expel suspected foreigners indiscriminately

* Create a national identification system for all workers.

These hidden provisions in the immigration proposals would make a bad situation worse. American immigration laws are already harsh, resulting in the destruction of immigrant families. Since Congress made deportation and detention mandatory minimums in 1996, 1.4 million people have been exiled from the United States. Immigrants have become the fastest-growing segment of our prison population. Families and taxpayers are paying dearly, as the Department of Homeland Security lines the pockets of for-profit prisons.

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