If you haven’t been following closely, there is another humanitarian crisis happening at the southern border, and the Biden administration is botching the response. They are reportedly considering several policies that would result in a return to family detention and even family separation.

If you knew me in 2017, you know that I was extremely vocal about the atrocities being committed by the Trump administration and their abhorrent immigration policies. And it hopefully will not surprise you to learn that I am every bit as outraged when Democrats perpetrate similar harms. We simply cannot let these inhumane policies go unchecked. And the fact of the matter is that this will continue to be both a humanitarian AND political crisis until this country passes bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform.

So here’s my idea! Below is a proposal I drafted 5 years ago for what I truly believe is an ethical, balanced, thoughtful approach. Friends and experts on both sides of the aisle agreed. They all had parts they really liked and parts they didn’t love, but could live with. But despite our best efforts on Capitol Hill, nothing came of it at that time. I think now is as good a time as any to try again!

The Biden Administration recently proposed legislation that very closely mirrors about half of this, but leaves out the provisions that would be more appealing to Republicans, who immediately dismissed it as an amnesty bill. I really do believe that if enough people on both sides speak up in a concerted effort, we could potentially move the needle and help thousands of desperate children and families. It certainly can’t hurt to try!

Will you read through the proposal I drafted below, and if you would feel comfortable recommending it as a reasonable starting point for sincere bipartisan collaboration, please sign your name and include your state and zip code. Then share it with other reasonable people on both sides of the political aisle so we can work together as concerned citizens to end the partisan gridlock that is harming vulnerable children and families.

I will collaborate with friends in Georgia and Utah to deliver this petition with signatures to the offices of Senators Ossoff, Warnock, Romney, and Lee and urge them to reach out to each other and work on co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation that will serve the best interests of US Citizens while also finally bringing an end to so much suffering at the border. I believe in us! Thank you for being willing to engage.

Diana Bate Hardy

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A Reasonable Proposal for Bipartisan Comprehensive Immigration Reform

SECTION 1: PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR DREAMERS

Provide legal permanent residency to individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children. Individuals who are registered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program automatically qualify, if they arrived in this country by June 15, 2007, unless they have engaged in conduct that would make them ineligible. To obtain legal status, individuals not enrolled in the DACA program must:

● Have been continuously present in the U.S. since June 15, 2012, the date of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Executive Order;

● Have been under age 18 when they entered the U.S., and under age 38 on June 15, 2012;

● Meet educational requirements or be serving in the U.S. Armed Forces (or have been

honorably discharged from military service); and

● Pass background checks, medical exams, and register for the Selective Service, if

applicable.

Individuals do not qualify if they are inadmissible under INA 212(a)(2), except that a single conviction for possession of a controlled substance for personal use will not render the applicant inadmissible under (a)(2)(A)(i)(II). Individuals are required to pay any federal tax liability incurred while working legally in the U.S. (From Rounds King Bill)

Beneficiaries are eligible to apply for citizenship after 5 years as a legal permanent resident, consistent with current law.

The government may not remove anyone who appears to be prima facie eligible for relief. Removal of qualified individuals enrolled in school and over 5 years of age shall be stayed (and employment authorization granted upon application) unless the individual ceases to meet qualifications. With limited exceptions, the Secretary may not disclose or use for immigration enforcement purposes information provided in applications filed under this title or in requests for DACA, and may not refer for enforcement anyone granted conditional permanent resident status or DACA. (From McCain Coons Bill)

SECTION 2: $25 BILLION TO BE ALLOCATED OVER THE COURSE OF 10 YEARS FOR THE FOLLOWING SECURITY AND ENFORCEMENT MEASURES:

Innovative Technological Border Security

Strengthen national security by developing innovative technological solutions for identifying people seeking to enter the country and tracking when they enter and exit. Focus first on threats to national security, gangs, drug and human traffickers, and other security threats.

Develop "smart documentation" that is much more difficult to abuse or counterfeit and that can be tracked upon use by other governmental agencies like drivers license divisions, background checks, or employment authorizations.

Invest in better training and resources for DHS officers and agents with incentives that promote a culture that respects and values immigrants as human beings, regardless of race, creed, or income. Trainings should include communication skills (including additional incentives for foreign language fluency), crisis resolution, skills-based de-escalation training, emergency response, anti-discrimination training to prevent racial profiling, and civil rights training consistent with other law enforcement agencies.

Require DHS to provide detailed reports to Congress on its security plan, including physical barriers, fencing, tactical infrastructure, technology, personnel, and the milestones for implementing this plan. Funding after the first year is released each year once the DHS Secretary certifies that at least 75 percent of the goals for the prior year have been reached. Sixty votes would be required in order to prevent funding for each fiscal year. (From Rounds King Bill)

Focus ICE efforts on removing those who threaten the safety of our country and communities, including gangs, drug traffickers, human traffickers, and national security risks. Work with state and municipal law enforcement agencies to come up with a fair, Constitutionally-sound program for not releasing immigrants who have been CONVICTED of violent crimes back into our communities.

Executive Office of Immigration Review

Allocate a portion of the total $25 billion for the hiring and training of new Immigration Judges, BIA staff attorneys, ICE attorneys, and USCIS Asylum officers in order to eliminate the years- long backlog and ensure speedy adjudication of future immigration proceedings. Require a well- trained, impartial, diverse pool of IJs with balance of individuals from private bar, NGOs bar, academia, and public sector. Require specialized and ongoing mandatory training of IJs and BIA members on procedural issues, including training on vulnerable populations (domestic violence, sexual assault, children, trafficking). Also requires each IJ to have sufficient support staff, court facilities, and technological resources. (From McCain-Coons Bill)

Prevent the denial of credible fear interviews and indefinite detention for asylum seekers in private detention centers by increasing the number of asylum officers at the border. Expand the categories for asylum-seekers to include sex as a particular social group and gang-violence as a qualifying threat. Require that an attorney be appointed to represent unaccompanied minor children, immigrants with serious mental disabilities, and other particularly vulnerable individuals in removal proceedings.

Promote public safety by expressly authorizing the use of Expedited Removal under specific circumstances and by implementing a mandatory reporting system for the collection of detailed data on all cases of expedited removal. Grant express and limited authority for DHS to use Expedited Removal within 100 miles of the border for those with histories of criminal or immigration violations who have been here no more than 30 days.

E-Verify

Make E-Verify mandatory, with the inclusion of common exemptions from states that have already mandated its use. Invest a portion of the total $25 billion into improving its technology and accuracy. Allocate funding to offer assistance for small businesses. Allocate funding to provide legal assistance to those who need to challenge inaccurate E-Verify results. (While E- Verify error rates have dropped significantly, if mandated for all employers, estimated 200,000 people who are hired for jobs would be erroneously found to be ineligible to work.) Impose penalties, after warnings and training, for employers who fail to use e-verify.

Remove criminal penalties for hiring undocumented workers and instead notify employers who attempt to hire undocumented workers and permit them to pay for the proper visa to sponsor those workers if they can prove there is no US citizen for the job. (Consider allocating funding to subsidize the cost of visas for certain employers, like farmers, who rely on low cost employment for the benefit of the American people.) Include protections for immigrants who are exploited by employers, and criminal penalties for employers who exploit the system or employees.

Data collected through E-Verify will help determine the true employment needs of US employers, prevent employers from devaluing US workforce, bring undocumented individuals out of the shadows, minimize burdens on US employers, while still protecting the interests of US workers and providing information that helps the US better understand who is here.

Secure Communities

Allocate a portion of the total $25 billion to research, development, and implementation of an improved Secure Communities Program. This effort should draw upon experts in law enforcement and constitutional law and should result in focusing ICE efforts on removing those who threaten the safety of our country and communities, including gangs, drug traffickers, human traffickers, and national security risks and preventing the release of immigrants who have been convicted of violent crimes back into our communities.

SECTION 3: PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR CERTAIN TPS RECIPIENTS

Revise INA Section 244 to make it clear that a grant of TPS is an admission for purposes of INA Sec. 245, so TPS recipients are not unfairly denied adjustment of status through their US citizen children or spouses. This merely applies case law from the 9th and 6th Circuit Courts of Appeal consistently across the United States.

Permit any Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipient who has continuously resided in the United States for 5 or more years and who is admissible to the United States under all provisions of INA Section 212(a) to apply for legal permanent residency.

● Applicants may be found ineligible for the program for various reasons, including on health and criminal activity grounds.

● A person with a prior deportation or voluntary departure order may still apply, but if the application for LPR status is denied, the previous order becomes enforceable again.

● Allows for an employment authorization document to be issued when the application for LPR status if filed.

● Spouses and unmarried sons and daughters of applicants for LPR status can apply as well and are eligible if requirements similar to the applicant are met.

● Approval of LPR status for TPS holders will not reduce the number of LPR slots provided for in the Immigration and Naturalization Act. (From ESPERER Act)

SECTION 4: PROTECT FAMILY-BASED VISAS AND DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY

Do not revoke or change the Diversity Visa Lottery or family-based visas, unless those changes are part of a comprehensive, two-track, merit-based point system that allocates statistically significant points for family ties and country of origin, similar to the proposal in the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.”

SECTION 5: TEMPORARY GUEST WORKER PROGRAM

Create a new nonimmigrant, less-skilled W visa program similar to the one introduced in the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013,” but with the major distinction of permitting undocumented workers already in the United States to apply for at least a portion of the available visas. This replacement for the H-2A agricultural worker program would allow foreign workers to work for designated employers while also being able to leave a job to go work for other designated employers. Employers would be required to perform recruitment activities to show there are no available U.S. workers before W visa workers can be employed. W visas would be approved for 3 years and renewable for another 3. Employers would be required to pay the W workers the higher of the minimum wage or specified wage rates and must provide U.S. workers the same benefits, wages, and working conditions.

This program would provide up to 500,000 visas and allow certain industries that need year- round labor to participate, as suggested by the Goodlatte Bill.

The program must also include protections for visa holders, including an authority to which abuses may be reported and protection from deportation for those who report abuse.

SECTION 6: BARS TO REENTRY AND INADMISSIBILITY WAIVERS

Repeal the 3- and 10-year unlawful presence bars to reentry, which have been shown to actually incentivize longer unauthorized stays and which severely punish many US citizens and their families. Broaden the criteria for inadmissibility waivers beyond hardship to also include rewarding individuals for clean criminal records, social and economic contributions, strong community ties, and good moral character.

Amend section 240(A) to lower the standard from "exceptional and extremely unusual" back to "extreme hardship" and remove the numerical limit.

Revise current waiver of inadmissibility requirements to:

● authorize parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to apply for a waiver of

inadmissibility for unlawful presence;

● place a three-year limit on immigration-related misrepresentations rendering aliens

inadmissible;

● revise the definition "conviction" for INA purposes (see Section 6 above);

● waive inadmissibility for certain persons who entered the United States before age 16

who have earned a degree from a U.S. institution of higher education;

● Waive inadmissibility for false claims of U.S. citizenship by persons under age 18 or

lacking mental competence to knowingly misrepresent a claim;

● Waive inadmissibility for false claims of U.S. citizenship if inadmissibility would create

family separation hardship for the alien (including a self-petitioner under the Violence

Against Women Act) or for a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident family member. (From H.R.1036 - American Families United Act)

SECTION 7: MANDATORY STAYS OF REMOVAL FOR PRIVATE BILLS

Private immigration bills have long served as a final check and critical safety net against unethical immigration enforcement outcomes by preventing the removal of a very small number of certain individuals who are subject to final orders of removal, but who deserve special consideration for some reason. In order to preserve this important tool for Congressional oversight, revisions should be made to require ICE to authorize a mandatory stay of removal upon receiving a request for information about the individual from either the Senate or House subcommittee where the private bill is referred. Such a stay should remain in place unless and until Congress has voted on the bill or the bill’s sponsor explicitly requests a revocation of the stay. Pending the bill’s disposition in Congress, the individual should be permitted to remain in the United States, be released from ICE custody, and receive work authorization during this period.

SECTION 8: CLARIFY IMMIGRATION IMPLICATIONS OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT

Revise the INA to clarify the definition of conviction as not including an expunged conviction or a plea in abeyance, if properly completed. This gives more weight to state legislators’ ideas of what should or should not be considered full convictions.

Simplify and clarify which specific criminal offenses trigger removal proceedings. Such revisions will permit criminal defense attorneys to better understand the immigration implications as they advise criminal defendants, set clearer expectations and more consistent outcomes for immigrants, and ease the burden on Immigration Judges, attorneys, and support staff, who will spend significantly less time and effort re-litigating criminal issues in removal hearings.

SECTION 9: DEFERRED ACTION

In order to ensure the fair and predictable implementation of immigration enforcement priorities and reward rather than penalize those who comply with enforcement orders, prohibit DHS from withdrawing or reversing a formal grant of deferred action, whether statutory or based on prosecutorial discretion, except for good cause. Because it may be presumed that deferred action is only granted when immigration enforcement officials determine the individual poses no threat to public safety, this prohibition should be applied retroactively as well as to future cases.