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NEWS HEADLINES
AILA Support for Kennedy's Proposed Bill
We urge your support for the SOLVE Act of 2004 (Safe, Orderly Legal Visas and Enforcement Act of 2004), H.R. 4262, introduced by Representatives Menendez (D-NJ) and Gutierrez (D-IL]. This comprehensive immigration reform measure will make immigration safe, legal and orderly. The SOLVE Act will reunite families, reward work, respect workers, reduce illegal immigration, and enhance our security. This measured bill achieves these ends through:
- An earned adjustment for people who work hard, pay taxes, and contribute to their communities. This bill gives undocumented people who demonstrate their commitment to this country and its principles the opportunity to obtain permanent residence. Many have been here for years, are paying taxes, raising families (typically including U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident spouses and children), and contributing to their communities and the industries in which they work.
- New "break-the-mold" worker program. Current immigration laws do not meet the needs of our economy. This bill creates a new temporary program that would give workers the opportunity to work where they are needed and employers the workforce they need to remain competitive, without displacing U.S. workers. This program provides legal visas, family unity, full labor rights, labor mobility and a path to permanent residence and citizenship over time. It would diminish significantly future illegal immigration by providing people with a legal avenue to enter the U.S. and return, as many wish, to their home countries, communities, and families.
- Family-backlog reduction. Our family preference immigration system has not been updated in more than a decade, and an increasing number of American families face long periods of separation. This bill reflects the fact that we are a country that values strong families by including provisions that would preserve and strengthen the family preference system.
- Enhanced security measures. This bill includes measures that would reduce crime and enhance our intelligence capacity, enable our law enforcement agencies to focus on terrorists and criminals, and encourage legality at our borders.
Our current system is unworkable, outdated, in serious disarray and encourages illegality. What is the solution? Not proposals that seek to enforce an unworkable system, but the SOLVE Act. This bill will help create an immigration system that is safe, legal, and orderly, a system that reflects our nation's values, our traditions, and our needs. I urge your support for this measure. We also urge the swift passage of pending legislation with significant Congressional support: the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security (AgJobs) Act (S. 1645/H.R. 3142) and the DREAM/Student Adjustment Act (S. 1545/H.R.1684). Both these bipartisan measures would implement needed reforms.
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