As a mom, I know that children’s worst nightmare is to be separated from their parents. Yet, 4.5 million children in the United States must live with this fear every day.

It’s long past time for comprehensive immigration policy reform that reflects the contributions and needs of women and moms.

Can you click here to urge your members of Congress to move immigration reform forward that values the contributions of women and moms, and treats us fairly?

Studies show that the effects of separating children from their parents can lead to developmental delays, poor school performance, depression and aggression in children. The current backlogs and decades-long waiting periods for family reunification, and the fact that there currently isn’t an earned roadmap to citizenship no matter how long or how much someone has contributed to this country, are unacceptable.

We all can relate to striving to protect our loved ones: Our children.

With this in mind, then it’s not surprising to hear that women now make up over half of the immigrant population in the U.S. Or that studies show the majority of women migrate for family reasons, including to reunite with family, to make a better life for their children, or to escape oppression, discrimination, and violence that prevent them and their children from living full and free lives.

The ultimate difficulty, the ultimate heartbreak, is to live in a new location with both the hope of opening opportunities and the fear that you can at some point be separated from your children because there is no current roadmap for you to legalize the immigration status for everyone in your family.

We’re going to be blunt here: The current dysfunctional immigration system is inflicting unnecessary pain on children across the country.

We can do better!

Don’t forget to click here to urge your members of Congress to move immigration reform forward that values the contributions of women and moms, and treats us fairly.

Together we are a powerful force for women and families!

Asian-Americans are the fastest growing minority in the United States, growing by 46% between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. Also, May marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

In celebration of the many contributions of women, mothers and families of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage to the United States, I am pleased to introduce this blog carnival by MomsRising.org. Below you will find a series of blog posts by Asian Pacific Americans from all walks of life. Please show your support by leaving a comment or two, sharing with your social media followers – and celebrating with us! Ua tsaug!

Deepa Iyer, South Asian Americans Leading Together
Immigration Policy Must Respect Experiences of Immigrant Women and Mothers

Emily Lawsin, Filipino American National Historical Society
Poem for Mom: My Pinay Nanay!

Grace Hwang Lynch, Hapa Mama
Why It’s Important to Teach Kids About Asian American History

Helena Wong, Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence
The Fight for Racial Justice Continues

HyeSook Chung, DC Action for Children
Striking a Balance Between Tiger Mom and Empathetic Mom

Isabel Yuriko Stenzel Byrnes, The Power of Two
Our American Dream: A Double Gift of Breath

Jane Yoo, National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
The youngest in our community say yes to immigration reform

Jessica Guh, Jess Guh: On Race, Privilege and Medicine
Gaysian Marriage?

Julie Kang, Geisha School Dropout
Margaret Cho in the Korean Spa: On Birthday Suits and Birth Rights

Junko Nishiguchi Cheng, Panda Mom Confessions
Asian Pride and Our Heavenly Citizenship

Maria Wen Adcock, Bicultural Mama
Accepting My Asian Hair Meant Accepting My Heritage

Mee Moua, Asian American Justice Center
What does the new immigration bill mean for women and families?

Mia Wenjen, Pragmatic Mom
Top 10: Chinese American Children’s Books (ages 2-14)

Priscilla Huang, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
AAPI Heritage Month: A Time to Focus on Challenges

Reshma Shamasunder, California Immigrant Policy Center
The best way to celebrate API heritage month: Fighting for our families

Thien-Kim Lam, I’m Not the Nanny
I’m Tired of Defending My Nationality

Around the Web
“Dim Sum Recommended Dishes — Asian Pacific Heritage Month“, Bicultural Mama

Want to read more stories you can relate to– and then take action to make the world better for moms and families? Click here to receive MomsRising e-mail alerts — and a free MomsRising.org magnet!

CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities (aka Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence) is a pan-Asian organization based in New York City that has been doing social and racial justice work since 1986.  We are rooted in low-income Asian immigrant and refugee communities and work to build the leadership of those most impacted by systemic and institutional injustice and violence.

We believe that policing and state violence affects everyone.  As Asians, we are often disregarded or looked at with skepticism when it comes to these issues.  However, we are clear that despite there being examples of success stories of Asians, that our communities have never been exempt from racism and white supremacy.  In fact, we see our struggles connected to struggles of color communities of color, queer communities, and other marginalized communities.

In the 1990’s CAAAV, along with organizations like the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, and the Audre Lorde Project, formed the Coalition Against Police Brutality to call out then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s Quality of Life campaign that targeted poor people and people of color and criminalized people for minor offenses.  After the September 11^th attacks, CAAAV was part of a national movement that voiced concern about the War on Terror and how it was a war at home and a war abroad.  In the past few years, as the New York Police Department has become as large as the world’s seventh largest military force, implemented surveillance programs that impact every single New Yorker, we are clear that our communities are less safe now than at any other time.

How does it translate to our day-to-day work?  In 2011, CAAAV’s youth members surveyed over 300 youth across the boroughs to understand what issues affect young Asians. Through the course of the survey project our youth realized that despite all the attention paid to biased-based policing and “stop-and frisks”, most young people did not know what their rights were. In 2012, CAAAV’s youth program produced a documentary about the impact of policing on Chinatown community members.  Since then, as a part of the city-wide Communities united for Police Reform (CPR) campaign and the People’s Justice coalition, CAAAV youth are conducting Know Your Rights trainings throughout New York City concerning police encounters and participating in broader calls for accountability within the New York Police Department.

Our commitment to racial justice and the eradication of violence for all people is a guiding principle in how and why we participate in this kind of work.  The names and the stories of Sean Bell, Yong Xin Huang, Iman Morales, Ramarley Graham and others are not forgotten by us.  If you have questions about our policing campaign or if you are interested in having CAAAV conduct a Know Your Rights training at your school or organization, contact us at justice@caaav.org.

As an immigrant, a South Asian American, and a mother, the current debate over immigration policy is deeply personal to me.  At the time my parents moved from India to spend a year in Nashville, Tennessee, I was two and a half, around the same age as my own son is now. As I navigate life with a toddler, I often reflect on the experiences that my mother had when she became a new immigrant in the United States.   It is hard for me to imagine the isolation that she must have felt in a new country, not yet “home.”  In India, my mother had worked, had driven me around, and had enjoyed being with her friends and family.  In the U.S, she was cut off, trying to navigate a culture, language, and systems that seemed foreign and overwhelming.

My mom’s experiences as an immigrant mother in the United States are not unique.  Those of us with immigrant mothers find that the stories that have been handed down to us have a similar cadence – of struggle and stress, but also of resilience and strength. But, what is troubling to me is that in my work at South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), I often hear stories that don’t sound markedly different from the stories of women who immigrated in the 1970s and 1980s — despite the changes in laws and perceptions of immigrants over the past forty years.  In some cases, the situations facing immigrant women and mothers today are worse due to unfair immigration policies that prevent women from leading full lives in the United States.

Take Meghna Damani, for example, who had been on an H-4 dependent visa for years.  Current law does not allow dependent spouses to work in the United States.  In her documentary, Hearts Suspended, Meghna reveals how the dreams and hopes of women who are unable to use their education and skills in the United States have been shattered, sending many into isolation and depression.  Women on dependent visas who are abused by their partners have even more limited options under the immigration system, making it harder for them to leave their abusive partners. Immigration reform must ensure that women who immigrate to the U.S. on dependent visas have options to utilize their skills and background to make intellectual and economic contributions.

The story of Kabita, a Bangladeshi immigrant and advocate, is one of family separation. In this clip from SAALT’s Say It Loud! documentation series, Kabita describes her feelings of being separated from her daughter: “We are just crying over the telephone all through, because we want to be together. We want to help each other in family and social life, but I am deprived from all these things.” Sadly, instead of improving such a situation, today’s debate over immigration would actually place more limitations on some family members (including adult married children and siblings) from reuniting with their loved ones.

Or, take the story of Pema, a Nepali nail salon worker, who turned to one of SAALT’s local partners, Adhikaar, after enduring harsh workplace conditions.  Immigrant women in the informal sector and in service and retail industries, many of whom are undocumented, are especially vulnerable to exploitation.   Immigration reform must ensure that the rights of workers are preserved and strengthened, and that the path to legalization does not require stringent evidentiary requirements to show proof of employment.

And, while South Asian men, especially since 9/11, have been targets for detention and deportation, it is often women who bear the brunt of harsh immigration enforcement policies that separate families from one another.  The documentary, Whose Children Are These?, chronicles the story of Navila Ali, whose father was subjected to detention through the National Security Entry/Exit Registration Program (NSEERS), which required men from certain Middle Eastern and South Asian countries to submit to questioning by immigration authorities in the wake of 9/11. With her father in detention, it is Navila’s mother who became the family’s support system.

As Congress considers landmark immigration reform legislation, now is the time to better understand the consequences of flawed immigration policy on women, and to enact appropriate changes.  While the bill that passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee in late May contains a number of provisions that would be beneficial to immigrant women, there are still important fixes to be made in the areas of immigration enforcement, worker rights, merit-based systems that prioritize education and employment skills, and family unification.

Throughout our history, immigrant women have borne the often untold consequences of unjust immigration laws. With the opportunity to pass a landmark immigration reform law, we must ensure that the unique experiences, contributions and hopes of immigrant women are recognized and addressed. We owe our immigrant mothers nothing less.

These family immigration fixes will provide much relief to the more than four million family members waiting to reunite with their loved ones here in the U.S. Among those family members waiting are our mothers, daughters, and sisters. For Asian American family members, the backlogs are particularly troubling. In 2012, approximately 86 percent of visas issued for Asian nations were family-based. Additionally, Asian American citizens and green card holders sponsor approximately one-third of all family-based visas, and thus are disproportionately affected by backlogs, which can last up to 23 years.

But even after the committee vote, there remain many unanswered questions for what’s to come of our family immigration system moving forward. Due to the bill’s proposal to put an age cap on petitions for adult married children and to wipe out the sibling category, completely, there is a key shift in our immigration system. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), the only Asian American immigrant on the Judiciary Committee, and in the U.S. Senate, proposed an amendment, which would allow U.S. citizens under “extreme hardship” to petition family members, but this amendment ultimately failed by a vote of 11 to 7. However, Senator Hirono offered a number of amendments that improves the bill, which passed easily including an amendment to reunite Filipino World War II veterans with their families swiftly and an amendment that gives DREAMers access to federal student aid. These amendments demonstrate Sen. Hirono’s steadfast commitment to the immigrant community and their families.

As the bill now heads to the full Senate floor, the debate around families only continues. Now all Senators will have their chance to improve the bill. With the proposed merit-based system, which awards points to individuals based on education, language ability, family ties to the U.S., and other related criteria, AAJC is still fighting to ensure Asian American families aren’t left behind. As it is currently written, an adult sibling petitioned by a U.S. citizen would receive the same number of points as someone with a masters’ degree. We, as do many of our friends in the Latino, civil rights and faith communities, have serious concerns about this system imposing a major disadvantage to women who may not possess the education, work experience, or other economically-valued skillsets to accumulate enough points to be eligible for a visa within a decent timeframe. Earlier this year, Sen. Hirono conducted a Senate hearing on the impact immigration reform will have on women. For many women, the family-based immigration system is their only avenue for legal immigration. By limiting family-based system, there are many concerns for the future immigrant women. With this in mind, Sen. Hirono offered an amendment that commissions the Government Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct a study on the new merit-based system’s impact, which easily passed on a voice vote. We know that immigrant women are underrepresented in the high-skill workforce. Sen. Hirono’s amendment will keep the GAO accountable to women, families, and the American people.

Each of the senators, at one time or another, throughout the mark-up process, acknowledged that this bill was a compromise bill. And that was evermore evident when Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) was forced to withdraw his amendments that would have allowed same-sex, bi-national, permanent partners reunite here in the U.S. “I don’t want to be the senator who asks Americans to choose between the love of their life and the love of their country,” Leahy said during the committee debate. However, that is what the committee did by rejecting Sen. Leahy and Sen. Hirono’s family reunification amendments. If the Senate bill were to pass tomorrow, we would be forcing Americans to make heart-breaking decisions between their families and their home countries. Does that sound like a commonsense solution? Not at all.

Passing a bill with meaningful provisions and fixes on family immigration will be a complicated fight. We will need to defend the provisions that help families, while fighting against amendments and rhetoric that attack the family unit. As the Senate floor awaits the bill, the House bill is set to be introduced any day now. There are many rumors that the House bill will be significantly more conservative than the Senate bill. I hope that you all, as mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters, will join me in this fight that is crucial for Asian American women and families. If you are an immigrant, and the daughter, mother, or sister of an amazing and talented woman, make your voice heard, and tell your story today. Join us in the fight to reunite our Asian American and immigrant families!

As the bill heads to the full Senate for more debates and a floor vote, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) families are organizing a day of action to make sure Congress passes a strong comprehensive immigration reform bill that preserves the family visa program. The action, “Stand With Families: National AAPI Day of Action for Immigration Reform” will bring hundreds of families, including a handful of some of the youngest members of our community who all have something to say to members of Congress when it comes to immigration reform.

The following blurbs are from just a few of these youngest participants who in their own words shared why it was important for them to come to Washington, D.C.:

Pictured all the way to left: Min Yoon and Jin Yoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My name is Jin Yoon and I am a 14-year-old 8th grader from Torrance, CA. This immigration event in DC is important because I know many people who are immigrants themselves. With this event I hope that immigrants will be able to live just as normally and safely as other citizens. Immigration is important to me personally because I have known multiple people who were immigrants themselves. My own friend during elementary school was an undocumented immigrant. It is for people like her that I hope immigration reform will be passed quickly. This is not the first immigration event that I have attended; I traveled to Arizona several years ago in a tour bus along with dozens of others to attend an immigration march in 100-degree weather and I also went to DC even before then to drum in the streets with my drumming troupe to rally for immigration reform along with 50,000 others. I am hoping that this event will reunite Asian American families who have been separated due to immigration problems. Living in America should not be such a challenge. I also believe that children, teenagers, and young adults are the main group of people who will be able to change our government. The children of today will one day become the senator, governor, or even president of tomorrow. Children make the biggest difference; they may not have the loudest voice, but they have the most powerful. To the members of Congress, I would like to say that immigration is not an issue that should be treated step-by-step. Everyday, thousands of innocent people are dragged out of their homes into countries which they have probably never stepped foot in for decades. Immigration needs to be corrected now, and it is with your support that it will be possible.

My name is Min Yoon, a 6th grader from Torrance, California. Right now, immigration reform is a growing issue in America. This event in DC is a huge step to express our concern about this issue. I don’t think it really matters what age, gender, or race you are, but as long as you’re trying to seek for a better society, it shouldn’t matter. As a young student with immigrants as parents, I once tried to get people to sign a petition to let an undocumented family stay in this country. Especially for the two undocumented students, this was the only place they’ve lived their entire lives, but were about to be forced to leave, just because they were born somewhere else. It’s a bit scary if you think about it. If you don’t think so, then picture yourself living in exile, hoping that nobody recognizes you, feeling like a nobody, just because some people thought you were……. different? Even some of my own friends experience this. We need a permanent solution to help not only the DREAMers, but all the immigrants to have the opportunity to fully contribute to our country. When I think about this country, I think about all the immigrants who have to go through many hardships. I want to at least think of my own country as a country that’s been through a number of hardships, but flourished in the end by passing the immigration reform.

Photo: Lucy Kim

My name is Lucy Kim and I am 12 years old from Los Angeles, California. I am going to Washington, DC in June to protest for Immigration reform because Congress is doing some things that I don’t like! It is a bad idea to take away invitations (her word for family petitions) because that’s basically cutting off your family, in a sense. Without them, it will be hard to get to see your family in another country because it’s hard to visit far away places. For example, my favorite cousin lives in Korea, but I’ve only seen him once in my life. But he’s still my favorite! Communicating by electronic devices just isn’t the same. Taking away invitations is wrong, because it’s a right that we Americans have had for a long time. Children can definitely make a difference in the world. Even if children aren’t as old as adults, they can still trigger a movement that changes the world. It’s not only adults! If I met a Congressman or woman I would tell them that what they are doing isn’t right. It’s not fair to countless Americans with loved ones in other countries.

AAPIs have been deeply impacted by our nation’s broken immigration system; one in seven Korean Americans are undocumented and they fear separation from their families through deportation. There are many who work in low-wage jobs; young people are unsure of their futures and tens of thousands are caught in the immigration backlogs waiting years to reunite with their loved ones. But as the AAPI community’s voices gets louder and stronger through many years of organizing and building electoral presence, they are coming out in full force because they understand that now more than ever their voices and participation is needed to ensure that immigration reform happens this year. We are hopeful this will happen and we have some of the boldest advocates, the youngest in our community, helping to lead the way with our courageous immigrant leaders.

The Stand With Families: National AAPI Day of Action for Immigration Reform on June 5th is being sponsored by:

• Asian American Justice Center
• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
• Asian Pacific American Legal Center
• Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement
• Korean American Resource and Cultural Center
• Korean Resource Center
• National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
• National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
• National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
• Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
  

Amidst the incredible diversity of Asian American cultures  and experiences, there’s often a common thread: a deep commitment to family and strong ties to siblings, parents, and extended family members.

In fact, family is the cornerstone for many immigrant communities, and it’s also supposed to be a cornerstone of our immigration system. But ironically, a system that sometimes brings families together often tears them apart instead.

And as critical efforts to reform our immigration system pick up speed, many Asian American families are at risk of being left out – unless we speak out and share our stories.

First, let’s take a moment to reflect on the story of Asian Americans. It’s the quintessential immigrant story, with people from heterogeneous nations coming here to work and find opportunities for their family. And like other immigrants, Asian Americans have had to fight back against discrimination and injustice. Consider the Chinese Americans who helped build the transcontinental railroad in the mid 1800s, and then faced blatantly racist and discriminatory immigration laws in the 1880’s. Or the Filipino farmworkers who struggled side by side with Cesar Chavez for justice for all farmworkers in the 60’s.

Also in the 1960’s, our nation started to move away from the more discriminatory immigration laws of the past, and put in place provisions that honor  family ties.

I know how important these pro-family provisions are first hand. Without them, my whole childhood would have been different.

I’m the daughter of Indian immigrants who migrated to this country for work opportunities in the early 1970s. In the early 1980s, my mother sponsored her young adult sister to immigrate to the US. My aunt is a nurse who has worked in this country for more than 30 years, contributed tremendously to our economy and community. Most importantly, she has ensured my siblings and I – all US-born– benefited from the gift of family. She was our only extended family member living in the US while we were growing up, and I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to become close to her. My aunt helped to raise us, and my own children are deeply attached to her.

Unfortunately, the current Senate Immigration Reform bill fails to recognize the importance of family for Asian American and other communities. Despite the attempts of Senator Hirono to offer amendments during the committee process, the current proposal eliminates the ability of greencard holders and citizens to sponsor their siblings and certain adult married children. If this proposal were in place when I was a child, my mother would not have been able to sponsor my aunt.

And that’s not the only threat to families. Of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, 1.3 million are from Asia. While the immigration reform bill is being debated, detentions and deportations of aspiring citizens are continuing at an alarming rate.

Case in point: Jagmohan Singh, an Indian immigrant, is married with three children. He works long hours at a convenience store and mistakenly failed to identify an underage buyer of alcohol. He was cited by an officer standing behind the youth. Jagmohan went to court, where they required him to take some training classes, but when he left the courthouse, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him. He has no previous criminal record and has been held in detention since February.  He was the sole earner in his family.  Since he’s been in detention, his family cannot afford to pay rent and bills and they have lost their apartment and are now living with relatives.

As immigration reform advances, we must halt the deportation of individuals like Jagmohan who will most likely be eligible for a pathway to citizenship under immigration reform. And we must create a bright line separation between our local law enforcement and ICE through measures like California’s TRUST Act, which would limit cruel and costly “holds” which unjustly trap aspiring citizens in local jails for extra time. Detaining and deporting individuals like Jagmohan only creates heartbreak and broken families.

As we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage month and the contributions of diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander communities to our culture, we also celebrate our history of family.  Our heritage cannot be separated from our immigration stories and the stories of our families. An immigration system that ignores family ties or seeks to separate families is not acceptable.  We can, and must, do better.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. But in my family, we try to learn about Asian American history year round. Because they are multiracial Asians, my kids especially need to learn about the history and contributions of Asian immigrants in the United States. But everyone can benefit from learning about the experiences of Asians in America, especially as Congress debates proposed changes to the nation’s immigration policies.

My own parents arrived in the United States in the late 1960s, after the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which makes my children third-generation Asian Americans. My children know no other home but America, and a multicultural one at that – where Asians, Latinos and whites live, work and go to school together. But it’s important to learn about the experiences of other Asian Americans who came before them.

Honoring the accomplishments of the people who paved the way for today’s Asian Americans helps us understand the obstacles that our forbears have faced – and overcame. Nearly 50 years before Jeremy Lin created “Linsanity” by taking the New York Knicks on an unexpected winning streak, Wat Misaka was the first Asian American – and first person of color – to play basketball for the NBA. Long before Lucy Liu starred in Ally McBeal, Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American woman to grace the silver screen.

But despite the stereotypes that Asians are the “model minority”, not all immigrants who cross the Pacific find success in the United States. It’s also important to remember the violence against Chinese railroad workers and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Acknowledging these difficulties helps us to have understanding for the obstacles faced by any minority group – Asian, African-American, Latino, Muslim or Native American. As the Spanish philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Visit my blog, HapaMama for recommended children’s books for Asian Pacific Heritage Month and suggested museums and landmarks to visit with your family.

Below are a few of the major gains and losses for kids in the markup process. An update on the full list of amendments FFCC determined could impact children can be viewed via this link.

Positive Amendments Passed:

• Franken 7, the “HELP Separated Children Act”, was passed by a unanimous 18-0 vote, and received widespread SJC support across party lines. The amendment will improve immigration enforcement policies to protect child well-being and promote family unity by ensuring that parents’ are able to make decisions regarding their child’s care at the time of apprehension, while in detention, and prior and following removal.

• Hirono 22, the “Child Trafficking Victims Protection Act” provides additional services and protections for unaccompanied minors in Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) custody, including providing adequate medical care and conducting screening upon apprehension.

• Hirono 21 allows DREAMers to access tuition assistance while in RPI status, making college more affordable for students. It was passed with a second degree amendment which excludes access to Pell Grants.

• Coons 10 ensures that individuals authorized to be employed in the United States may not be denied professional, commercial, or business licenses on the basis of immigration status, which is beneficial for Dreamers and other young people seeking employment.

• Feinstein 5 creates a pilot program under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA) to deter, detect, and prevent child trafficking by utilizing the services of independent child welfare professionals to assist CBP in the screening of children.

• Feinstein 6 improves protections for unaccompanied children by requiring CBP to adopt standards for treatment of children in custody.

Negative Amendments Defeated:

• Cruz 2 & 3: Makes any individual who has ever been in the U.S. in unlawful status ineligible for means-tested benefits or citizenship, which would result in nearly 1 million children never being able to access critical health and nutrition benefits or citizenship.

• Grassley 11 would have removed the provision that allows individuals who are detained or in removal proceedings but may be eligible for RPI status to apply for such status. It also would have replaced the provision that allows certain undocumented immigrants who were removed to reenter the U.S. in the interest of family unity with an expansion of DHS’ ability to deport individuals in RPI status. Overall, the amendment would have removed a number of provisions that are highly beneficial for family unity and replaced them with provisions that would likely result in more children becoming separated from their families.

• Sessions 30 would have restricted access to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) by excluding those that file with an Independent Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) number, directly harming children in immigrant families, many of whom are U.S. citizen children.

• Sessions 31 would have denied the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to families with children during the entire RPI period, restricting it until families become LPRs or U.S. citizens, meaning children could have been denied access to the EITC, a proven anti-poverty tool, for a minimum of 10 years.

Positive Amendments Withdrawn, Defeated, or Not Offered:

• Blumenthal 1, Little Dreamers, would have enabled young children to adjust to lawfully permanent resident (LPR) status after completing 5 years of registered provisional immigrant (RPI) status under the DREAM title if they are under the age of 18 at time of adjustment to LPR status. The amendment was not offered for consideration during the SJC markup.

• Hirono 10 would have allowed citizens to petition for their son or daughter if their child’s absence from the U.S. is causing the citizen hardship, promoting family unity through the family based immigration system. The amendment was not agreed to by a 7-11 vote.

• Hirono 16 would have removed the five-year waiting period for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for children, pregnant women, and lawfully present individuals, reducing the wait for children to be eligible for critical nutrition and health assistance. The amendment was withdrawn.

• Hirono 17 would have allowed time in RPI status to count towards the five-year waiting period for federal means-tested benefits, so income-eligible children will not have to wait an additional 5 years for critical nutrition and health assistance following time in RPI and LPR status.  It also would have provided a state option to eliminate the five-year bar for Medicaid for LPRs, Dreamers, and blue-card holders. The amendment was withdrawn.

Cross posted from First Focus Campaign for Children.

Washington, D.C.—The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) commends the Senate Judiciary Committee for its passage of the Senate bill for immigration reform, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” (S. 744). The group expressed concern, however, that the bill moves forward without two major civil and human rights considerations for aspiring citizens: access to affordable health care and equal rights for binational gay and lesbian couples.

“While we support the advancement of the Senate immigration reform bill, we are deeply discouraged and disappointed that the Senate Judiciary Committee has disregarded the health care needs of immigrant women and families and the civil rights of gay and lesbian binational couples. The ability of aspiring citizens to be healthy and productive and of all families to stay together are basic civil rights issues that must be addressed as the immigration reform debate advances,” said Jessica González-Rojas, executive director of NLIRH.

On Tuesday night, S. 744 was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 13-5 vote. In the current Senate bill, aspiring citizens on the roadmap to citizenship are excluded from affordable health care options, like Medicaid, for the entire duration of their provisional immigration status and face an additional five-year bar under current law. The bill also excludes aspiring citizens from the gains of the Affordable Care Act during their period in provisional status. As such immigrant women and families may be waiting up to 15 years or more before they can access affordable health insurance and see a doctor.

The legislation also advances without ensuring fair and equal treatment of binational gay and lesbian couples. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have offered amendments to improve the Senate bill, and have urged members of the Committee and Senate to address health and LGBTQ inclusion moving forward.

The exclusion of health care access and gay and lesbian families in the Senate bill is out of touch with our country’s values. A majority of Americans support aspiring citizens’ inclusion in affordable health coverage options. In May, 164 organizations urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to address the restrictions and lift the 5-year bar currently imposed on aspiring citizens’ access to affordable health coverage programs like Medicaid. Additionally, a majority of Latinos support the inclusion of gay and lesbian families in immigration reform.

“The Committee’s decision to exclude aspiring citizens from access to affordable health care and fair treatment is harmful, unwise and short-sighted. We know that our families, communities, and economy benefit when families can be together and live healthy, full lives. We urge members of the Senate to work with Senators Hirono, Leahy and others as the bill moves to the Senate floor to resolve these issues and ensure that all families in the United States can live with health, dignity and justice,” González-Rojas said.