PIVOT’S IMMIGRATION PLATFORM
We are immigrants in a nation founded by immigrants. The Statue of Liberty is one of America’s most significant landmarks, a reminder of our tradition and mission of welcoming those who come here to escape persecution, oppression, abject poverty, or violence. Simply put, immigration is at the core of who we are as a nation.
Yet, our current immigration system remains broken. There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows. Even when given lawful permanent resident status, immigrants are scapegoated as draining the nation’s resources and taking away jobs from citizens. Our detention and deportation policies and practices also give rise to serious due process concerns. Due to bureaucratic red tape and backlogs, for instance, U.S. citizens are forced to wait several years to be reunited with loved ones. PIVOT fights for immigration reform that is common sense, humane, and lawful for a vision of a better, more beautiful, and more diverse America.
Our Plan
Protect immigrants’ and asylum seekers’ rights.
Protect and enforce the legal rights of immigrant workers who are vulnerable to labor abuses.
Ensure that all immigrants, regardless of immigration status, have access to quality and affordable health care.
Promote, support, and increase access to language programs to encourage English proficiency, early learning programs for children, community organizations, job training opportunities, workers’ rights protections for immigrants, and fee waiver programs to reduce naturalization costs.
Challenge discriminatory laws that invite racial profiling by authorizing the police to demand papers proving citizenship or immigration status (e.g. Arizona’s SB 1070).
Continue our country’s tradition of welcoming refugees fleeing persecution and violence (e.g. increasing the U.S.’s refugee quota).
Support a pathway to citizenship for non-citizens.
Create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and other non-citizens.
Emphasize a reasonable wait for citizenship.
Minimize fees for naturalization.
Repeal the 3-year, 10-year, and permanent bars, which force people into the cruel dilemma of being forced to choose between living in the shadows, or leaving the country and being separated from their family for years.
Allow eligible undocumented individuals to serve in the military and then receive expedited pathways to citizenship.
End abusive enforcement and detention.
End local and state collaboration with immigration enforcement.
Reject all discriminatory bans on immigrants and refugees.
Demand and advocate for due process and humane policies in deportation proceedings.
Push for prosecutorial discretion and due process in comprehensive immigration reform legislation and in immigration policies.
Provide bond hearings in deportation proceedings.
Ensure access to government-funded counsel in deportation proceedings, particularly for unaccompanied children.
Expand the use of humanitarian parole and the granting of Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Prevent the unfair mass deportation of immigrants with criminal convictions who have already served the time for their crime.
Promote and advocate for immigration issues specific to Vietnamese American communities.
End the indefinite detention of Vietnamese immigrants who have outstanding removal orders, but who have also entered the U.S. prior to 1995 and so cannot be deported based on the U.S.-Vietnam Memorandum of Understanding on Deportation.
Inform Vietnamese American communities about the direct, oftentimes drastic, effects of immigration laws and policies on fellow community members.
Inform community members about resources for support with immigration issues.
Help eradicate the stigma and shame associated with immigration issues.