(May 24, 2006. Baltimore, MD) – Under the theme, No Human Being is Illegal and in a significant show of local unity and national collaboration, the regional offices of American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the National Network for Immigrants and Refugee Rights, and local allies held concurrent press conferences throughout the United States. Participants called on the Bush Administration and other national leaders to devise long-term immigration policies that are just and that promote the human rights of all people in the US. “We are here today because Congress is unwilling to deal with all the difficult issues that make up the US debate on immigration. It is easier to scapegoat immigrants for some of the country’s most pressing social and economic problems and to manipulate communities against each other than to have a just debate that reflects the concerns of all the stakeholders,” noted Ruben Chandrasekar, director of AFSC's immigrants’ rights program in Baltimore.

In what have been difficult days packed with bipartisan rhetoric and tough talk, the U.S. Senate repeatedly failed to produce substantive immigration reform measures. Instead, Senate leaders charged ahead with short-term, punitive and divisive measures instead of comprehensive and coherent policies.

“What is really at stake is how will the country manage the future flow of immigrants into the country and treat the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Senate leaders have responded to these issues by appeasing hardliners determined to push through, as many “you’re not welcome” policies as possible. Senators’ answers to these issues are to pursue enforcement-only provisions that totally militarize and further erode the quality of life in border communities, create an apartheid-type work system for undocumented people to become legalized, and increase the mass incarceration of immigrants,” observed Rajan Tripathi, President of the Human Rights Organization of Nepalese (USA) located in Baltimore.

The rhetoric in the Congress is also very divisive and is attempting to manipulate working class communities in the US into believing that immigrants are significantly contributing to the social and economic problems that confront them. “It is true that there is job competition between some immigrants and low-income working people for the lowest paid jobs in the U.S. Some undocumented immigrants are willing to take jobs for minimum wage or below that other working class U.S. citizens will not. This situation keeps wages low in some sectors of the economy and causes low skilled U.S. workers to either accept the low wage jobs or remain unemployed because they lack the skills to get a better job. So what all working class people must do is unite to fight for a living wage for all workers regardless of their immigration status and make sure that labor laws are enforced to prevent employers from pitting workers against each other by hiring them for sub-standard wages. Low-skilled workers must also be given access to job training so that they can access the better paying jobs,” says Quiana Sharief, a community resident of Southwest Baltimore.

Ms. Sharief adds that “it’s also important to state that the failing public school system, the lack of adequate health care and affordable housing, and the abundance of drugs and gun violence that one finds in the poor Baltimore communities has less to do with undocumented immigrants and more to do with the failed social and economic policies of the country. These social problems have more to do with this country’s struggles with racist policies than immigrants who are just trying to make a living,” Ms. Sharief concludes.

The AFSC and allied organizations across the country urged the public to contact U.S. Senators, members of the House of Representatives and the White House to insist that immigration policies respect: the civil rights and all human rights of immigrants; provide measures that support immigration status adjustment for un­­doc­umented workers; support the reunification of immigrant families; protect all workers labor and employment rights and stop manipulating U.S. and foreign born workers against each other; reduce backlogs that delay the ability of immigrants to become U.S. permanent residents; remove quotas and other barriers that impede or prolong the process for the adjustment of immigration status; guarantee that no federal programs, means-tested or otherwise, will be permitted to single out immigrants for exclusion and demilitarize of the U.S. - México border and protect of the region’s quality of life.

The American Friends Service Committee supports the rights and dignity of all people, regardless of their immigration status. AFSC’s Project VOICE works to uplift immigrant voices and strengthen efforts of immigrant-led organizations to set an agenda for fair and humane national public policies. Backed by an 88-year history working for peace, justice and reconciliation in troubled areas of the world, the American Friends Service Committee is a faith-based organization grounded in Quaker beliefs respecting the dignity and worth of every person. The AFC has worked in Mexico on rural and urban development projects and with migrant farm workers in California since 1940. In 1977 AFSC’s US/Mexico Border Program was created.