For Immediate Release
Jan. 6, 2021
NEW YORK – The UndocuBlack Network and several partners today sent a memo to Congress urging them to include Green Card language in the Build Back Better Act (BBB). In addition to UndocuBlack, the memo was signed by the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), the National Immigration Law Center, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
The joint memo is available here, and outlines the procedural steps to secure a pathway to citizenship in BBB. It includes guidance on how to sidestep the parliamentarian’s misguided and nonbinding advice in the Senate.
“The strategy is informed by Senate rules, but it also relies upon all Democrats in Congress working in unison to deliver justice to our communities,” said Patrice Lawrence, executive director of UndocuBlack Network. “The Democratic party has the power to organize the Democratic Caucus and make this happen. It now needs to show political will and embrace this strategy.”
The UndocuBlack Network emphasized its demand for registry, noting that this approach was morally sound and just. The group is unwavering that green cards through registry – outside of immigrants being issued citizenship – is the only way to tangibly change the lives of 11 million undocumented people. The Congressional Budget Office has preliminarily scored the registry language and the registry abides by the funding limits currently imposed. In fact, the House Judiciary Committee’s summary of the registry language noted it is “billions of dollars cheaper” than amending Section 245B of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“It is critical that the voices of impacted people and advocates be afforded respect,” said Yoliswa Khumalo Hadebe, director of narrative and media and a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient. “Grassroots organizers kept immigration relevant in the BBB by not giving into the parole agenda or the stagnation of temporary fixes from the last three decades on the immigration progress.”
“We are done with those in positions of power claiming to fight for us but instead taking up space and treading over the voices and demands of impacted people and grassroots advocates,” continued Hadebe. “This work is not a political chess game to us. The lives of 11 million people are hanging in the decision of the BBB Act. Whether we were born within the borders of the United States or not, we are still people.”
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