APABA-PA Resolution on 2015 Anti-Immigrant Amendments to H.R. 240

WHEREAS on November 20, 2014, President Barack Obama announced changes to immigration enforcement policy, deferred action expansion, and changes to the administration of certain areas of our legal immigration system; and

WHEREAS these administrative actions are designed to more efficiently manage our immigration system, taking into account the reality of our large unauthorized immigrant population and the impracticability of deporting this entire population, and the needs of our economy for immigrant skills, labor, and entrepreneurial investments; and

WHEREAS the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability program (DAPA) announced by President Obama is similar in structure to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) announced in the fall of 2012; and

WHEREAS the DAPA program would defer deportation from the United States of unauthorized immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents (Resource Center Memo on Obama’s Immigration Announcement); and

WHEREAS in 2007, the APABA-PA adopted a resolution supporting Comprehensive immigration Reform, including a pathway to citizenship for 1.2 million Asian Pacific Islander undocumented persons; more recent estimates place this number at 1.4 million today (Pew Research Center, Passel & Cohn, “Unauthorized Immigrant Totals Rise in 7 States, Fall in 14,” 11/18/14); and

WHEREAS the DACA and DAPA programs are needed because of the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that allows a pathway to legal status for an estimated 11 million undocumented persons currently residing in the U.S.; and

WHEREAS the November 20, 2014 administrative actions would protect mixed – status immigrant families from being torn apart by deportation, benefit businesses by providing additional flexibility in hiring immigrants with needed skills and allow immigrant entrepreneurs to launch new businesses with less restrictions, and enable millions of unauthorized immigrants to register and obtain a three year reprieve from deportation actions and gain work authorization; and

WHEREAS on January 14, 2015, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 240, an appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with four amendments designed to defund the implementation of and terminate the DACA and DAPA programs and other reforms (see AILA Jan. 13, 2015 letter to U.S. House); and

WHEREAS the Aderholt, Mulvaney, and Barletta Amendment will strike fifteen (15) agency and presidential memoranda, stopping programs and policies, including DACA and DAPA, that benefit every aspect of the immigration system; and

WHEREAS the Blackburn Amendment prohibits the use of funds or resources to review and adjudicate new DACA applications, renewals, or re-applications by those previously denied under the 2012 DACA program; and

WHEREAS the De Santis and Roby Amendment will prohibit DHS from executing the immigration Memorandum of November 20, 2014 which would have allowed consideration of an applicant’s past victimization as a “mitigating factor;” and

WHEREAS the Schock Amendment states that adjudication of petitions or applications by unauthorized immigrants should stop; and

WHEREAS H.R. 240 failed to proceed in the U.S. Senate with these four anti-immigrant amendments attached; and

WHEREAS the four anti-immigrant amendments may appear again in the legislative process

or at a later point in the budget process;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that APABA-PA opposes the four aforementioned amendments to H.R. 240 and any other legislative efforts to terminate or weaken the immigration administrative actions announced by President Obama in 2012 and 2014; and

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that APABA-PA authorizes its president to publish this resolution to Pennsylvania members of the U.S. Senate and Congress, to other bar associations, to other community organizations, and to the Pennsylvania press and media as she deems necessary.