The Coalition for Human Rights of Immigrants (CHIRLA) announced the launch of its new campaign “Let's Open the Doors to Permanent Residence through the Registry”.
This new campaign seeks to pressure the legislature to promote a law that seeks to provide a path to residence for around 8 million immigrants who live in the United States without documents. The launch took place in front of the offices of Congresswoman Norma Torres of California, who is one of the six congressmen who proposed the measure HR 8433, Renewing the migration provisions of the Migration Act of 1929.
The measure promoted by the congressmen and also promoted by CHIRLA would update the process of adjusting the migratory status, specifically in the Nationality and Migration Act (INA). This measure is not about a reform, as Angélica Salas, leader of CHIRLA, explains, it is an amendment to existing laws.
The proposal is an amendment of less than one page that aims to provide relief to the millions of undocumented immigrants who live in the United States in fear of being deported. "It is not an immigration reform, but what we are proposing is to make changes to a bit of the immigration law that already exists," explained Salas.
The amendment includes updating the registry that allows the regularization of immigrants. Currently, the law explains that those who have been in the country for seven years until before 1972 could access residency. What the congressmen propose is to change that year until 2015.
This amendment requires at least 60 votes, including votes from both political forces in Congress. "We hope to have Republican votes because some of them are supporting agricultural workers to fix their immigration status," Salas explained, arguing that this is part of the tasks that CHIRLA and other organizations in favor of immigrants have carried out.
There are positive precedents, since the eligibility deadline has been modified several times since 1929. “We know that it will not be easy to win this fight, but if we all do our bit, we can win, because it is fair, change the law so that 8 million people are benefited”, Salas concluded.
This amendment would not only benefit undocumented immigrants, but also beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status.
