ACLU-NM Regional Center for Border Rights Applauds Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill

Affiliate: ACLU of New Mexico
April 17, 2013 4:50 pm

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Some civil liberties concerns remain in bill however, says ACLU.

April 17, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

LAS CRUCES, NM—Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights (RCBR) applauded the new comprehensive immigration reform proposal that the U.S. Senate introduced early this morning. The new bill provides a pathway to citizenship for aspiring Americans already inside our country.

“The immigration reform bill has the potential to be a historic advance for civil rights and liberties of immigrants and all Americans,” said ACLU of New Mexico RCBR Director Vicki Gaubeca. “This bill would allow millions of aspiring Americans to step forward and share equally in all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.”

The ACLU of New Mexico RCBR is, however, concerned about several problematic aspects of the immigration reform bill:

“The new immigration reform bill needlessly expands wasteful border spending, even though our communities along the border are safe, net migration from Mexico is at zero, and prior border security benchmarks stipulated by Congress have already been met,” said Gaubeca. “Also, the mandate to use job-killing, costly and privacy-invasive employment verification (E-verify) raises significant civil liberties concerns. The ACLU will continue to fight every step of the way to ensure that we do not trade away fundamental freedoms as we work to remove needless obstacles in the immigration process. Moving forward we will also work to guarantee adequate oversight and accountability of border enforcement efforts.”

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