Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 9th, students, faculty, and staff from Wagner College will hold a press conference urging the U.S. Congress and the New York State legislature to support Comprehensive Immigration Reform. We hope to have a City Council Member and a New York State Assemblyman in attendance. In any case we will be asking everyone to support the petition below that was drafted by Wagner student and community activist Kevin Ferreira. We ask that others who read this also reach out to their legislators to gain support for a reform whose time truly has come.

If you want to sign the petition, please go here: http://tiny.cc/wagnerCIR 

To:

Sen. Charles Schumer

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

Representative Michael Grimm

State Senator Diane Savino

State Senator Andrew Lanza

Assemblyman Matthew Titone

Assemblyman Michael Cusick

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis

Assemblyman Joseph Borelli

We, faculty, students and staff of Wagner College, join countless others in our surrounding Staten Island, New York and American communities in calling for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and passage of the New York State DREAM Act. In the spirit of Wagner College’s commitment to service, leadership and citizenship we write to you to defend family unity, support economic growth, promote cultural diversity and uphold equal rights for all people.

Currently, there are an estimated 11 million undocumented people in the United States. These individuals and families face unprecedented struggles, even as they continue to contribute enormously to our country’s wealth and well-being. In the last two years, over 200,000 parents of US-born children have been deported, tragically upending thousands of families. On the job, undocumented immigrants face unsafe work conditions and receive unfair and insubstantial wages that prevent them from accessing the decent health care and adequate housing they need to sustain their families. Despite facing these hardships, a majority of undocumented immigrants pay taxes, and in 2010, contributed over 11.2 billion dollars to state and local governments. We applaud the hard work that immigrants do in our communities and in our economies, and in recognizing these hardships and these contributions we ask that Congress, in return, support Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Reform must include a pathway to citizenship that will enable every person in our country the ability to participate freely in our democratic society. Such a pathway must be feasible and fair and not overly burdensome with fees and requirements that disqualify many undocumented individuals.

Reform must support family unity, without discrimination. Families have long been a core institution of American society, promoting social stability, fostering economic independence, and inculcating positive values. Keeping families together is therefore fundamental and must stand as an inviolable principle that supports a family-based immigration system.

Reform must immediately ensure that undocumented youth who were brought to this country as children have equal access to a college education. As members of an institution of higher education that has transformed countless lives, we affirm the priceless value of higher learning and the role it has played in helping millions to achieve the American DREAM and build a stronger society. Undocumented youth must have the same opportunity as everyone else to pursue that DREAM, not only for themselves but also to build a more self-reliant and productive country for the benefit of all. We believe that it is of the utmost urgency to recognize those undocumented youth who do not have equal access to higher education and pass the New York State Dream Act. While calling on the federal government to address immigration we recognize that our state can take immediate action by creating equal opportunity and equal access to college in our state for undocumented youth who were brought here in their childhood. We know that the New York State DREAM Act helps the entire business community in Staten Island and in New York. We agree that access to financial aid, which is essential to managing the hefty price of that accompanies a higher education in today’s society, is a central part

of the DREAM Act.

Reform must ensure that the legal immigration system is sufficiently robust to meet the needs of the American economy, does not disadvantage native-born workers, and does not encourage waves of unauthorized immigration when job demand is high. It is essential therefore that reform protect the rights of all workers.

A central tenet of the reform must ensure the right to due process, a right too often denied our immigrants. The absence of due process in dealing with the nation’s undocumented is wholly against this country’s founding principles. The traditions of our justice-oriented democracy must restore those intrinsic rights that guard our nation’s people against unwarranted and unjust confinement and detention, or any practice that strips individuals of their right to full, unfettered due process.

To deny immigrants access to such basic and fundamental rights as the pursuit of happiness is to disregard the contributions that the undocumented have repeatedly made to their communities. The comprehensive immigration reform that is now long overdue must right the wrongs that have been perpetrated against our undocumented community. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is an investment in our country’s democratic system, economy, and society.

We, the undersigned, hereby affirm that our current immigration system is tragically flawed and broken, and urge your support for the New York State DREAM Act and Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Sincerely,

Dr. Stephen Preskill

Kevin Ferreira

Dr. Lori Weintrob

Julia Zenker

Dr. Karen DeMoss

Patti McCaffrey

Dr. Margarita Sanchez

Samantha Siegel

Kevin Farrell