Justice, Religion

Immigration Reform by Pesach!

ice
Here’s an new Jewish community immigration initiative you need to know about: “Progress by Pesach.”
PBP has brought together an impressive coalition of diverse Jewish orgs that are urging the Obama administration and Congress to make meaningful progress on compassionate immigration reform by April 2009.
There’s a variety of components to this campaign. Here’s the jist, from their sample letter to President Obama:

Our Jewish faith scripture tells us to “Welcome the Stranger” with love and compassion. However the singular focus on aggressive enforcement of outdated immigration laws creates a sense of fear and animosity between communities and the law enforcement that serves them. The policy of relying on raids and enforcement tactics as the sole means of controlling immigration has clearly failed.
The suffering caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in homes and workplaces underscores the problems with current U.S. immigration policies and the urgent need for reform. Please work to ensure our country sees progress in the direction of humanitarian immigration reform in time for Passover, in April 2009.

Check out the Progress by Pesach website for the specifics.

16 thoughts on “Immigration Reform by Pesach!

  1. While we’re talking about immigration reform, I’m thrilled to share an e-mail I received from Immigration Equality today:
    Great News! Rep. Jerrold Nadler plans to reintroduce the Uniting American Families Act on Feb. 13!
    You can make the bill a success by convincing your Representative to support the bill from Day One. Reintroducing the bill with as many cosponsors as possible will show powerful momentum for the rights of gay and lesbian binational couples!
    Please call your Representative and ask them to be an original cosponsor of the “Uniting American Families Act of 2009”
    It’s easy!
    1. Find out who your U.S. House Representative is. Go to http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/index.htm, enter your address, and you will be provided the name of your U.S. Representative.
    2. Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask to be connected to your U.S. Representative.
    3. Tell your representative’s staff:
    I am calling to ask Representative ________________ to be an original cosponsor of the Uniting American Families Act of 2009. To cosponsor, he/she must contact Rep. Jerrold Nadler who is the lead sponsor.
    The U.S. government discriminates against gay and lesbian binational couples by not allowing us to sponsor our foreign-born life partners for immigration. Because of this, we face the terrible choice of separating from the person we love or leaving our country. As Americans, we should not have to choose between family and country. Please ask Rep. _________________ to cosponsor the Uniting American Families Act of 2009 by reaching out to Rep. Nadler before February 12.
    Thanks for asking your member of Congress to celebrate love this Valentine’s Day by cosponsoring UAFA!

  2. This should go for Europe too. As a south american it’s even harder to get in there. Why they prefer the muslims, when we could take room away from them? Beats me.

  3. This should go for Europe too.
    Oh, sure. Every country in the West should listen to the Jews, and stop enforcing their immigration policies by Pesach.
    They have until Pesach.

  4. If you’re in Chicago, the local partner is the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, who wants you to know you can get involved:
    Want to help?
    + SIGN THE PETITION http://www.jcua.org/progress
    + Forward the petition to your friends
    + Attend or host a program or workshop at your congregation or your home (we’ll help you!)
    + Deliver a D’var at your shul (and a call for petition signatures)
    By signing on to the petition, we will let you know about upcoming events and actions locally and nationally on immigration reform and provide your with resources and tools to take action on this important social justice issue.
    For more information or to get involved:
    Contact: Irene Lehrer Sandalow at [email protected]

  5. I have a feeling that the people that “jews for social justice ™” care about is seasonal. One day it’s the workers. The other time it’s people of color, then it’s homosexuals. Right now it’s criminals who entered the US illegally.
    The fact that this has negative repercussions on the job market for workers or America’s original oppressed minority is of no consequence. This isn’t the season to care for them. ILLEGAL aliens is the new hip. Be on board or be square.
    Disgusting

  6. As immigrants who have suffered persecution, it our responsibility to protect those who face injustice and inhumanity. This commitment is not seasonal, but life-long. It is my understanding from reading about the Jewish Council on Urban affairs, that the organization has been fighting for immigrants’ rights for more than 30 years. I think this is a great moment in time to come together as Jews seize the opportunity to making long-term impact on the lives millions of individuals who contribute in a positive way to our society.

  7. One day it’s the workers.
    The workers? THE WORKERS? Far-Left could give a rat’s ass about rank and file working class people.
    Mass immigration drives wages and benefits down, down, down.

  8. What I think is interesting is the complicated longitudinality of immigration opinions. Kleptocratic Republicans like Bush slash the budgets for the Border Police because more illegal means more easily exploitable workers, but cater to Nativist bigots in their rhetoric. The most bleeding-heart Democrats want to legalize all the undocumented and give them amnesty because we’re a “nation of immigrants” while at the same time the Unions absolutely don’t want the competition for jobs. The problem isn’t only that there’s no effective system in place for enforcing immigration laws and border control, but there no easy left/right consensus as to what to do or why.

  9. chillul Who?,
    If you recognize that there are reasons to be concerned with mass immigration generally, why are you jumping on this bandwagon? The policy put forth by HIAS is absolutely akin to open borders, at least once the illegal immigrant makes it to the U.S.
    HIAS supports unfettered immigration as much as possible because it serves their organizational needs — they seek ever more federal and state contracts.
    But why do you support this? You are clearly aware that corporations are pushing mass immigration for the sake of profit. They want to pay less for labor. And some jobs can’t be outsourced. So you pay less by expanding a labor supply even in a rapidly and severely contracting economy.

  10. I’m sorry DK, lot’s of stuff going on today.. the short answer is I don’t agree with completely open borders, but I don’t agree with your take either. I agree that its a complicated issue, however. I’d like to see actual enforcement of the laws, a liberalizing of the laws, but not to penalize everyone who is here already automatically.

  11. As immigrants who have suffered persecution
    No, anonymous. We did not “suffer persecution” here. This is anti-American hogwash. We were not “persecuted” in the U.S. Stop it.

  12. DK seems to be fighting the good fight on this thread so I’ll keep my input to a minimum.
    All I will say is that everything far left Jews (claim) to stand for is undercut by illegal immigration except immigration itself:
    environmental issues, worker rights, you name it, it is adversely affected by massive immigration.
    Isn’t there some Jewish teaching that says you should only give as much charity as you can afford without becoming needy yourself? Hasn’t the United States reached that stage? What is Jewish or Social or Just about anything that has happened in America for the last 40 years because of immigration?

  13. OWNED, PBP, OWNED! Progress By Pesach failed! 3,500 is all you got! The Jewish community said “NO!”
    Your backing from major Jewish organizations didn’t help…HIAS’s deplorable McCarthyite tactics didn’t help!
    Not even 10,000 American Jews were willing to put their names on this nonsense despite all the cards you held, and all the terms you set.

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