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This legislation is a blueprint for writing racism out of immigration laws. New Way Forward provides a bold vision of what our immigration system should look like: one that advances our values of compassion and respect for everyone’s rights instead of mass criminalization, detention, or deportation.
New Way Forward repeals some of the worst provisions of the 1996 immigration laws that are directly responsible for expanding the incarceration of immigrants, creating a fast track for deportations without due process, setting the foundation for local police and ICE entanglement, and cementing the pipeline from arrest to deportation.
The New Way Forward Act:
Pushes back on mass incarceration. It ends mandatory immigration detention and bans for-profit immigration jails.
Restores vital due process protections. It ensures immigration judges are no longer forced to deport people automatically, but can instead consider the individual circumstances of people’s lives so they can remain in the U.S. And it allows community members to move forward with their lives without fear that an old sentence could lead to deportation many years later.
Strengthens fairness. It allows independent federal judges to review certain decisions of immigration judges that the 1996 laws unfairly tried to remove from judicial oversight.
Ends federal prison sentences and criminal prosecutions for people who cross the border seeking freedom, safety, opportunity, or to come home. A law originally authored by a white supremacist in the 1920’s has fueled mass incarceration under recent administrations of both parties.
Advances racial justice. It limits deportation for convictions steeped in racial profiling.
Protects local resources. It ends the harmful practice of local police acting as deportation agents or carrying out mass deportations with ICE.Creates a process for people previously ordered deported to apply for the opportunity to come home to the U.S. and reunite with their families. We need a pathway for people to be able to return to their families and communities – their home – in the U.S.
Contact your elected representatives
Contact your elected representatives
How to support:
How to support:
Using the “Contact Reps” widget on this page, enter your zip code to find your representatives.
When you see the screen that says “send message”, simply copy and paste the letter below (feel free to customize as you see fit!).
Select “Immigration” under “select a topic”.
Click send!
Create a free account with Causes, a civic engagement technology app.
Enter your address to confirm that you are a constituent of these elected representatives.
You will get an email to confirm your email address so your elected rep can reply to your letter. Make sure to verify your email!
Sample letter:
Sample letter:
Hi, my name is ______ and I am your constituent. I am writing to ask you to cosponsor the New Way Forward Act, which would dismantle the harmful policies that unjustly criminalize, incarcerate, deport and separate immigrant families. The bill would bring much needed relief and repair to communities disproportionately harmed by our nation’s overzealous and unfair immigration enforcement laws.
It was through the hard organizing work of grassroots, immigrants, first time voters, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, Black, brown and historically disenfranchised Americans that helped to deliver our country the historic Biden-Harris administration. Forging us a new way forward. Now, we have the vested opportunity to repeal decades old policies that have devastated these very same communities and leaders and a responsibility to undo the damage inflicted by the previous administration’s policies that fueled mass expansion in federal immigration prisons and widespread abuses.
We cannot allow our fellow and future Americans to wait for justice; it’s time to envision our communities free of mass criminalization and deportation. We must root out deep, systemic problems of racism and xenophobia that permeate our immigration and criminal legal system. We must ensure the new administration delivers on their promise of leading us towards unity, healing and rebuilding our nation back stronger. And a #NewWayForward is only possible together.
I urge you to stand on the right side of history, take action today and cosponsor the New Way Forward Act! Thank you for taking time to read my email.
If you would like more information about the bill, please visit: http://immigrantjusticenetwork.org/newwayforward
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