TEMPLATE -SAMPLE Resolution Urging Congress to Pass Federal Immigration Legislation Creating a Pathway to United States Citizenship and

Urging the Obama Administration to Immediately Suspend Federal Deportations

A resolution by [CITY/STATE] urging the Congress of the United States to pass legislation to establish a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented Americans and an immediate suspension of record-breaking deportations. WHEREAS, Americas broken immigration system should be reformed to address the insufficient number of visas for workers to support the U.S. labor force; the arbitrary visa caps creating backlogs and separating families; the exploitation of immigrant workers by employers through wage and workplace violations; and the inadequate government infrastructure to support the immigrant population; and WHEREAS, Federal immigration reform must provide contributing, tax paying immigrant workers and their families with an opportunity to obtain legal permanent residency and eventually United States citizenship through fair and reasonable requirements; and WHEREAS, The reduction of immigration backlogs should be included as a part of commonsense immigration reform so that United States citizens may be reunited with family members requesting to immigrate; and WHEREAS, Our immigration system should reflect the American principle that it is the right of all people to be treated fairly and justly by extending full labor and civil rights protections to all workers; and WHEREAS, A meaningful opportunity for immigrant students to pursue a college education after high school graduation should be included in federal immigration reform; and WHEREAS, Immigration policies that allow for the existence of a disenfranchised population of 11 million undocumented peoples who contribute to our economy and community but are excluded from our political process are incompatible with a healthy and vibrant democracy in the United States and must be reformed to actively promote participation in our nations civic life; and WHEREAS, Federal immigration reform must include a discussion of the fundamental cause of migration to the United States, such as the need for sustainable social and economic development in the communities where migrants originate; and WHEREAS, Our immigration system should keep families unified and must stop separating immigrant parents from their children who are citizens of the United States as happened to over 200,000 parents who were deported in the last two years; and

TEMPLATE -SAMPLE WHEREAS, Immigration reform must remedy the problematic entanglement of local police in immigration enforcement, which resulted in a record number of deportations last year409,849caused by federally issued civil immigration detainers that were largely placed on individuals with no criminal convictions and who posed absolutely no threat to public safety;1 and WHEREAS, Civil immigration detainers ask local police to maintain custody over arrested individuals at local expense in order to facilitate deportation proceedings and [city/state] is under no legal obligation to use its limited resources to enforce outdated and misguided federal civil immigration laws; and WHEREAS, Immigration holds are issued before any finding of probable cause that an individual is deportable, and have been placed on over 800 United States citizens as well as lawful immigrants;2 and WHEREAS, Federal immigration reform must strengthen public safety and community policing initiatives by ensuring victims and witnesses of crimes feel comfortable cooperating with police to solve crimes without fear of deportation; and WHEREAS, The federal government has the exclusive authority to develop, implement, and enforce immigration policy under the United States Constitution, and states and localities should retain the discretion to develop good community policing strategies, and not be compelled to enforce immigration law, diverting scarce local resources, facilitating the separation of [CITY/STATE] families, and damaging community relations; and WHEREAS, The [CITY/STATE] does not wish to expend scarce local resources to enforce outdated and misguided immigration laws that facilitate the separation of [CITY/STATE] families, and endanger trust between the community and local police. WHEREAS, Local and state governments across the country such as Washington D.C. Cook County, Illinois; Santa Clara, California; San Francisco, New York City; and the state of Connecticut have adopted policies to limit responses to federal civil immigration detainers in order to protect public safety, crime-fighting resources, and vulnerable immigrant families; now, therefore BE IT RESOLVED by [TOWN/STATE] 1. This [TOWN/STATE] calls upon the United States Congress to pass federal immigration reform, including an inclusive pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants; 2. This [TOWN/STATE] calls for an immediate federal suspension on deportations
1

See TRAC Immigration, Who Are the Targets of ICE Detainers?, Feb. 20, 2013, available at http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/310/
2

See TRAC Immigration, Who Are the Targets of ICE Detainers?, Feb. 20, 2013, available at http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/310/

TEMPLATE -SAMPLE that currently frustrate community-policing efforts, generate fear and instability, drain local and federal resources and expel the very people who could benefit from imminent federal immigration reform. 3. That [TOWN/CITY] resolves not to use local resources to facilitate unjust deportations that separate families, and directs [LOCAL LEGISLATIVE BODY OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY] to immediately explore options for limiting responses to immigration detainers. Duly authenticated copies of this resolution shall be transmitted to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Majority and Minority Leader of the United States Senate, and the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of Congress elected from the State of [XXX]