Washington, D.C.| www.adc.org | November 20, 2014 – Just a few moments ago President Barack Obama announced the Immigration Accountability Executive Actions, a historic step aimed at fixing the country’s broken immigration system.  However, this is only the first step in the process of immigration reform. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) calls on the Obama administration and Congress to reaffirm commitment to statutory reform of immigration laws. ADC calls for a national immigration strategy that fully protects the dignity and human rights of all people in the enforcement of our immigration laws.

According to a statement from the White House, “These executive actions crack down on illegal immigration at the border, prioritize deporting felons not families, and require certain undocumented immigrants to pass a criinal background check and pay their fair share of taxes as they register to temporarily stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation.” Over the past few years, the current administration has greatly expanded detentions and deportations. Half of those detained and deported have no criminal record, many have only minor offenses, and tens of thousands have children with U.S. citizenship. The executive actions taken by President Obama will bring temporary relief to millions of individuals who are in removal proceedings. The relief will extend to both adults and children who are facing deportation from the U.S. 

As a member of the Leadership Conference, ADC and partner organizations call on Congress and the administration to adopt an immigration policy that ensures dignity to immigrant families and eliminates abusive enforcement and border policies. Measures must also be adopted to eliminate immigration policies that will result in racial profiling of immigrant communities, and abandon the inherently flawed 287(g) and “Secure Communities” programs. The new immigration policy must also ensure that prosecutorial discretion – the use of good judgment and common sense – is being applied in all immigration enforcement operations, and eliminate the excesses and abuses in immigration detention policies.

ADC President Samer Khalaf states, “The president did the right thing tonight; however, it should have happened earlier. Over the past decade, the majority country has supported immigration reform, all the while our elected officials have politicized the issue. During this time period, millions of individuals have been deported, which means thousands of families have been torn apart because of a broken process. The president’s measures tonight send a strong message to Congress – the time to get this done is now.”

ADC will continue to advocate for immigration reform. If you, or a family member, have questions about the executive actions announced by President Obama, please call the ADC Legal Department at 202-244-2990 for more information. You can also send an email to legal@adc.org. 

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