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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	1091
Proposal	2022 Platform Amendment: Chapter II, Section J Immigration, Path to Citizenship
Presenter	Platform Committee Sponsor: Latinx Caucus
Floor Manager	Margaret Elisabeth
Phase	Closed
Discussion	08/08/2022 - 09/04/2022
Voting	09/05/2022 - 09/11/2022
Result	Adopted
Presens Quorum	32 0.6666
Consens Quorum	58 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

Language has been updated to reflect a more concrete stance on immigration by replacing and adding language in regards to Pathway to Citizenship.

Latinx Caucus is asking for “Social Justice, Section J. ‘Immigration’ ” to be moved under “Section A. Civil Rights and Equal Rights” between the bullet point for Violence Against Women and Reparations. We have updated the language to reflect the new title: “Pathway To Citizenship”.

Proposal

Amend the 2020 platform by moving “Chapter II Social Justice, Section J. ‘Immigration’ ” to a new bullet point in “Section A. Civil Rights and Equal Rights” between the bullet points for Violence Against Women and Reparations; the new bullet point will be renamed from "Immigration" to "Pathway To Citizenship", and rewritten as follows:

Pathway To Citizenship

Laws to oppress immigrants have been proposed by states, Congress, and numerous administrations. Millions of immigrants and supporters of justice for immigrants have marched in the streets. Politicians have constantly stirred up anti-immigrant sentiment among sections of the U.S. population. U.S. imperialism; a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force, and colonialism; the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, economic exploitation, unfair trade policies, economic sanctions, unequal distribution of assets, increase in violence, and climate change have caused many of the world’s citizens to migrate for better opportunities. We must address all people’s humanitarian needs as we chart a course toward a less cumbersome pathway to citizenship.

The Green Party stands firmly for social justice for all living in this country regardless of immigration status. Above all, policy and law must be humane. Anything less would be inconsistent with our Green Values, and with our nation’s values.

The Green Party strives for a world in which persons can freely choose to live in and work in any country they desire. We recognize that this would be impractical without reciprocity between nations. We seek that reciprocity as a practical goal.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

There are over 10,200 forms, hundreds of immigration statuses, hefty annual renewal fees, and varying steps immigrants must take to start the process for their specific situation. Many times applications are denied because the applicant submitted forms for the incorrect category and cause them to lose all filing fees paid up to that point (no refunds.) This cumbersome immigration process along with unreasonable Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and lawyers fees must be streamlined.

INHUMANE TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANTS

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), local police, and for-profit/private prison corporations such as GEO Group and CoreCivic have taken advantage of the increase in anti-immigrant legislation and created a symbiotic relationship. ICE’s mission, “To protect America from cross border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety. This mission is executed through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes and focuses on immigration enforcement and combating transnational crime,” subscribes to the belief that every Latin American citizen is a criminal. Mass incarceration fuels the proliferation of for-profit prisons while for-profit prison corporations encourage policies that increase the number of people behind bars. With various states implementing anti-immigrant legislation, setting up detention centers has been an easy contractual agreement with the “incentive” that they must meet 80% to 100% fill capacity for payment. ICE reports they have paid $85,000 per incarcerated individual and a total of $807 million to 19 for-profit detention centers.

Racist policies must be abolished. Undocumented immigrants boost America’s economic growth and raise the general productivity of American workers by providing much-needed skills. Immigrant workers allow important sectors of the economy to expand, attract investment and create employment opportunities for native-born Americans, contribute more in tax revenue than they collect, reduce American firms’ incentives to offshore jobs and import foreign-produced goods, and benefit consumers by reducing the prices of goods and services. Economists estimate that legalization of the undocumented immigrant population would increase the immigrants’ earnings and consumption considerably, and increase U.S. gross domestic product.

STEPS FORWARD

The U.S. needs a complete overhaul of its immigration laws, procedures, and programs. Our current situation has created extreme social injustice. Millions of people are living and working in the U.S. with no legal status, making them subject to extreme exploitation and abuse. Immigration raids are terrorizing the immigrant community. Families are being broken up. Employer abuses of undocumented workers are rampant. Immigration policies such as separating families at the border, kids in cages, and the Title 42 program which allows the United States Border Patrol and U.S. Customs to prohibit the entry of persons who potentially pose a health risk (a racist policy to fast track deportations and prohibit refugees to seek asylum on U.S. soil) must immediately cease.

The Green Party must consider immigration issues from an international standpoint, taking into account international labor and environmental standards, and human rights.

The following proposals may not yield perfect answers, but they provide better answers than the status quo. We must recognize that there cannot be any true solutions to the conflicts created by immigration until we are able to organize globally to overcome the power of multinational corporations, which are engaged in an unending campaign to drive down workers’ living standards everywhere. International cooperation and solidarity among labor organizations, to advance the rights of labor and raise such living standards globally, are essential to combat this trend. Until the power of the multinationals is curbed, we will continue to be confronted with seemingly “no win” choices.

When the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to one vulnerable group, everyone’s rights are at risk. We must end xenophobia and white supremacy to address laws and practices that punish and target individuals for their immigration status, national origin, ethnicity and race, to build power among the people. We must stand up for community members who have been excluded, oppressed, and maltreated and for people who have been subjected to multiple systems of oppression and exclusion. Our goal is for the many diverse immigrant communities to possess true freedom and equality. We propose the following immigration policies, consistent with the Ten Key Values.

1. Policy Reform

In many countries economic policies, military actions of the U.S. government or U.S. based corporations, and natural disasters have caused extreme hardships. These individuals must be prioritized to escape the intolerable conditions. We believe all immigrants must be granted a pathway to citizenship without cumbersome fees nor civil rights restrictions. In addition, we demand a recognition of past, uncredited payments into Social Security as part of any fees assessed for regularization of status. Persons should only be excluded if their background check presents a clear and present danger. We believe the following policies should be enacted:

Undocumented immigrants who are already residing and working in the United States, and their families, should be granted legal status which allows a pathway to citizenship.
All DACA and TPS recipients must be immediately granted a pathway to citizenship.
All essential workers such as farm workers must be granted permanent residency and a pathway citizenship
Permanent border passes to all citizens of Latin America and Canada whose identity can be traced and verified. The “matricula consular” should be accepted as one means of proving one’s identity.
Work permits for citizens of Latin America and Canada must be easily obtainable, thereby decriminalizing the act of gainful employment. This action would help eliminate exploitation of undocumented persons by criminals engaged in human contraband (coyotes) and unethical employers. It would also help ensure that taxes will be paid in each corresponding nation per its laws. These measures will also help temporary residents from Mexico and Canada to secure driving privileges and liability insurance.
All persons fleeing political, racial, religious, or other types of persecution must be welcomed and granted permanent resident status and a pathway to citizenship. The history of arbitrary denial of political asylum claims must end. Particular attention should be given to those minorities who are political exiles and refugees and those whose lives would be at risk if asylum is not granted
All those who are issued work permits must have the option to come and go from the U.S. as they desire. They must also be granted a pathway to citizenship
The long wait to petition for a family member to join them in the US. must end. We must prioritize family reunification for the sake of safety.
Permanent residency should not be denied based on political views, racial or national origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, or any other arbitrary basis.
We must keep faith with our commitment to the United Nations, to assist in the resettlement, including to our own country, of refugees currently stranded in refugee camps in other parts of the world.

2. Interim Measures

Recognizing that a just reform of immigration policy may take some time, the Green Party supports:

Measures to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses if they can prove their identity and pass the required tests. This will improve road safety and allow the undocumented who are driving in any case to obtain insurance.

Measures to give legal status to undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school in the U.S. and who are otherwise qualified, to allow them to attend colleges and universities on an equal basis with other high school graduates. The Green Party is opposed to efforts to force undocumented youth into becoming cannon fodder for the U.S. military as the price for legal status.

Reduce wait lists and make the system work more efficiently: current numeric caps on immigrant visas must be increased. The current system of quotas and preferences has to be thoroughly and realistically reformed. Current backlogs must be brought up to date as soon as possible. Wait times for processing and resolving immigration benefit applications should be reduced to no more than six months. Pre-1996 screening criteria for legal permanent residency and citizenship applications should be restored.

Immigrant workers do not compete for jobs with current citizens and should not be punished for being victims of U.S. corporatist policies. We must stop using our tax dollars to subsidize corporate agribusiness and to promote poverty in Latin America, and start using them to help reward environmentally responsible family farmers, encourage improved infrastructure and economic conditions in Latin America, and raise labor standards, at home and abroad. Here at home, we must also promote the policies, as outlined in the Economy and Workers' Rights sections of this Platform, that can help us achieve a full employment economy at a living wage, including strictly enforcing and expanding the rights of all workers to form unions.

We advocate an end to employer sanctions, which have been shown to hurt not only undocumented workers but also U.S.-born workers (especially those of color). Instead, the focus on employers must be to vigorously enforce our wage and labor laws. Instead of further victimizing the victims of corporate globalization, create real opportunities and raise labor standards for all!

We oppose the provision of current law which allows local police to become agents of the immigration agency. Local policing functions should be totally separate from immigration enforcement.

Greens oppose "English-only" legislation. Immigrants already have ample incentive to learn English. But when interaction with the government is limited to the English speaking, persons are put at additional risk of exploitation. The focus needs to be on providing adequate and accessible English language instruction and assistance. We advocate legislation to ensure that federal funds marked for communities to provide ESL (English as second language) training, and health and social support services to immigrants actually go to them. When funds are spent in other areas, immigrants are being deprived of benefits that they earn as productive workers in their communities. Meanwhile, courts, social service agencies, and all government agencies dealing with the public must provide trained and certified translators. Additionally, the language rights of peoples who were in this land before it became part of the U.S., including Native Americans and Mexicans in the Southwest, must be recognized and respected.

We oppose the militarization of our borders, (mis)using the National Guard as border police, and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. This will further intensify the human rights disaster our immigration policy has become, as well as seriously harm border ecosystems. We demand an immediate end to policies designed to force undocumented border-crossers into areas where conditions dramatically increase the risk of permanent injury or death, destruction of fragile environments, and the cutting off of corridors needed by wildlife for migration within their habitat. For these reasons we specifically oppose the walling off of both traditional urban crossing areas and of wilderness areas. We also call for the immediate dismantling of the border wall. We mourn the death of those thousands of men, women and children who have died trying to cross this border, where a couple of decades ago such deaths were virtually unheard of.

We must resist proposals that use illegal immigration as an excuse to put us all under further government monitoring and control by means of a national ID card or other identification or tracking systems. We also oppose the imposition of the "E-Verify" system to screen people applying for jobs. Citizen workers who have been propagandized to support "tougher" measures to identify and apprehend undocumented workers need to carefully consider what they are asking for. The same snare they want the government to use against undocumented workers can easily be used to repress them. Our government is already engaged in illegal spying and surveillance of its own citizens. It is already invading our privacy. A national ID card system is one of the hallmarks of a totalitarian government or police state. We need to repeal the Real ID Act and resist the establishment of any system that would suppress freedom to travel and require citizens and non-citizens alike to "show their papers" and reveal their private information to government monitors at every turn.

We demand recognition of the sovereignty of indigenous nations whose territories cross national boundaries. These indigenous nations have the right to determine the status of their members.

We demand new policies and laws that deal more effectively and humanely with the victims of illegal international trafficking in humans — primarily women and children who are bought, kidnapped, coerced, brutalized, defrauded, tricked, sold and marketed for forced sex (rape) and prostitution, with an estimated 50,000 trafficked to the U.S.

We call for stiffer, more appropriate policy, structure and laws to deal with traffickers, and also demand that procedures to deport victims before the traffickers are prosecuted must be changed to allow the victims to testify against the traffickers, which plays a major role in bringing these cases to justice and helping stem the tide of this heinous crime. The victims of trafficking should have the option of permanent residence in the U.S. or return to their home countries, according to their own choice.

Resources

Approval of this proposal will amend the 2020 GPUS Platform.

Contacts:

Diana C. Brown, muzikismy1stluv@gmail.com
Alejandro Ortega-Morales, Alexanderejames02@gmail.com
Manuel Pintado, matronman2003ayahoo.com

References

The proposal text in slightly better formatting available for comment is at: https://gpus.org/other/platform-2017/2022-pathway-to-citizenship/

Better formatting is at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KCO7SUwsQ4o4uh99aEZXATZvxIA8fJtLTvhGgdArp68/edit

See current language at: https://www.gp.org/social_justice/#sjImmigration, copied below:

J. Immigration/ Emigration

Immigration and particularly the large number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has become a hot political issue. Laws to oppress immigrants have been proposed in the Congress. Millions of immigrants and supporters of justice for immigrants have marched in the streets. Politicians have stirred up anti-immigrant sentiment among sections of the U.S. population.

It also must be acknowledged that the trigger for such an influx of immigrants in this country has been largely due to unfair US trade policies. If it were economically possible to provide for their families many would choose to remain in their native countries. Any immigration policy should be seen a way to address all people's humanitarian needs as we undo the damage to local communities and chart a course toward sustainable local economies.

The Green Party stands firmly for social justice for all those living in this country regardless of their immigration status. Above all, policy and law must be humane. Anything less would be inconsistent with our Green Values, and with our nation's values.

The Green Party accepts as a goal a world in which persons can freely choose to live in and work in any county he or she desires. We recognize that this would be impractical without reciprocity between nations. We seek that reciprocity as a practical goal. Countries do have a right to know the identity of persons seeking to enter. They also have the right to limit who can come in to protect public safety.

The U.S. needs a complete overhaul of its immigration laws. Our current situation has created extreme social injustice. Millions of people are living and working in the U.S. with no legal status, making them subject to extreme exploitation and abuse. Immigration raids are terrorizing the immigrant community. Families are being broken up. Employer abuses of undocumented workers are rampant.

The Green Party must consider immigration issues from an international standpoint, taking into account international labor and environmental standards, and human rights.

The following proposals may not yield perfect answers, but they provide better answers than the status quo. We must recognize that there cannot be any true solutions to the conflicts created by immigration until we are able to organize globally to overcome the power of multinational corporations, which are engaged in an unending campaign to drive down workers' living standards everywhere. International cooperation and solidarity among labor organizations, to advance the rights of labor and raise such living standards globally, are essential to combat this trend. Until the power of the multinationals is curbed, we will continue to be confronted with seemingly "no win" choices.

While working toward that goal, we propose the following immigration policies, consistent with the Ten Key Values.

1. Policy Reform

The undocumented immigrants who are already residing and working in the United States, and their families, should be granted a legal status which includes the chance to become U.S. citizens. Persons should be excluded from this process only if they present a clear and present danger to other members of our society. The level of fees required for this process should not be a burden on low-income workers. In any path to citizenship created to provide an orderly and appropriate resolution of the status of persons currently in the United States without proper documentation, we demand a recognition of past, uncredited payments into the Social Security System as part of any fees assessed for regularization of status. In regard to who should have a right to come and live and work in the U.S. we believe the following policies are fair:

The Green Party calls for permanent border passes to all citizens of Mexico and Canada whose identity can be traced and verified. The"matricula consular"should be accepted as one means of proving one's identity. Work permits for citizens of Mexico and Canada must be easily obtainable, thereby decriminalizing the act of gainful employment. This action would help eliminate exploitation of undocumented persons by criminals engaged in human contraband (coyotes) and unethical employers. It would also help ensure that taxes will be paid in each corresponding nation per its laws. These measures will also help temporary residents from Mexico and Canada to secure driving privileges and liability insurance.

All persons fleeing political, racial, religious, or other types of persecution must be welcomed and given permanent resident status. The history of arbitrary denial of political asylum claims must be ended. Particular attention should be given to those minorities who are political exiles and refugees and those whose lives would be at risk if asylum is not granted.

Family reunification must be a priority in accepting applications for permanent residency. The years of waiting that families are currently put through must be ended.

Permanent residency should not be denied based on political views, racial or national origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, or any other arbitrary basis.

There are many countries in the world where the economic policies and military actions of the U.S. government or U.S. based corporations have caused extreme hardships. The peoples of these countries deserve special consideration if they wish to come to the U.S. to escape intolerable conditions created by our government or U.S. corporations.

We must keep faith with our commitment to the United Nations, to assist in the resettlement, including to our own country, of refugees currently stranded in refugee camps in other parts of the world.

All those who are issued work permits must have the option to come and go from the U.S. as they desire. They must also have the option of remaining in the U.S. and becoming U.S. Citizens.

2. Interim Measures

Recognizing that a just reform of immigration policy may take some time, the Green Party supports:

Measures to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses if they can prove their identity and pass the required tests. This will improve road safety and allow the undocumented who are driving in any case to obtain insurance.

Measures to give legal status to undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school in the U.S. and who are otherwise qualified, to allow them to attend colleges and universities on an equal basis with other high school graduates. The Green Party is opposed to efforts to force undocumented youth into becoming cannon fodder for the U.S. military as the price for legal status.

Reduce wait lists and make the system work more efficiently: current numeric caps on immigrant visas must be increased. The current system of quotas and preferences has to be thoroughly and realistically reformed. Current backlogs must be brought up to date as soon as possible. Wait times for processing and resolving immigration benefit applications should be reduced to no more than six months. Pre-1996 screening criteria for legal permanent residency and citizenship applications should be restored.

The understandable concern about immigrant workers competing for jobs with current citizens cannot and should not be addressed by criminalizing undocumented immigration or punishing fellow victims of U.S. corporatist policies. Instead, we must reverse these policies. Among other things, we should repeal NAFTA, CAFTA, Fast Track and other corporate globalization policies. We must stop using our tax dollars to subsidize corporate agribusiness and to promote poverty in Latin America, and start using them to help reward environmentally responsible family farmers, encourage improved infrastructure and economic conditions in Latin America, and raise labor standards, at home and abroad. Here at home, we must also promote the policies, as outlined in the Economy and Workers' Rights sections of this Platform, that can help us achieve a full employment economy at a living wage, including strictly enforcing and expanding the rights of all workers to form unions.
We advocate an end to employer sanctions, which have been shown to hurt not only undocumented workers but also U.S.-born workers (especially those of color). Instead, the focus on employers must be to vigorously enforce our wage and labor laws. Instead of further victimizing the victims of corporate globalization, create real opportunities and raise labor standards for all!

We oppose the provision of current law which allows local police to become agents of the immigration agency. Local policing functions should be totally separate from immigration enforcement.

Greens oppose "English-only" legislation. Immigrants already have ample incentive to learn English. But when interaction with the government is limited to the English speaking, persons are put at additional risk of exploitation. The focus needs to be on providing adequate and accessible English language instruction and assistance. We advocate legislation to ensure that federal funds marked for communities to provide ESL (English as second language) training, and health and social support services to immigrants actually go to them. When funds are spent in other areas, immigrants are being deprived of benefits that they earn as productive workers in their communities. Meanwhile, courts, social service agencies, and all government agencies dealing with the public must provide trained and certified translators. Additionally, the language rights of peoples who were in this land before it became part of the U.S., including Native Americans and Mexicans in the Southwest, must be recognized and respected.

We oppose the militarization of our borders, (mis)using the National Guard as border police, and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. This will further intensify the human rights disaster our immigration policy has become, as well as seriously harm border ecosystems. We demand an immediate end to policies designed to force undocumented border-crossers into areas where conditions dramatically increase the risk of permanent injury or death, destruction of fragile environments, and the cutting off of corridors needed by wildlife for migration within their habitat. For these reasons we specifically oppose the walling off of both traditional urban crossing areas and of wilderness areas. We also call for the immediate dismantling of the border wall. We mourn the death of those thousands of men, women and children who have died trying to cross this border, where a couple of decades ago such deaths were virtually unheard of.

We must resist proposals that use illegal immigration as an excuse to put us all under further government monitoring and control by means of a national ID card or other identification or tracking systems. We also oppose the imposition of the "E-Verify" system to screen people applying for jobs. Citizen workers who have been propagandized to support "tougher" measures to identify and apprehend undocumented workers need to carefully consider what they are asking for. The same snare they want the government to use against undocumented workers can easily be used to repress them. Our government is already engaged in illegal spying and surveillance of its own citizens. It is already invading our privacy. A national ID card system is one of the hallmarks of a totalitarian government or police state. We need to repeal the Real ID Act and resist the establishment of any system that would suppress freedom to travel and require citizens and non-citizens alike to "show their papers" and reveal their private information to government monitors at every turn.

We demand recognition of the sovereignty of indigenous nations whose territories cross national boundaries. These indigenous nations have the right to determine the status of their members.

We demand new policies and laws that deal more effectively and humanely with the victims of illegal international trafficking in humans — primarily women and children who are bought, kidnapped, coerced, brutalized, defrauded, tricked, sold and marketed for forced sex (rape) and prostitution, with an estimated 50,000 trafficked to the U.S.

We call for stiffer, more appropriate policy, structure and laws to deal with traffickers, and also demand that procedures to deport victims before the traffickers are prosecuted must be changed to allow the victims to testify against the traffickers, which plays a major role in bringing these cases to justice and helping stem the tide of this heinous crime. The victims of trafficking should have the option of permanent residence in the U.S. or return to their home countries, according to their own choice.

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