Background

Intolerance, racism, and xenophobia are historical hallmarks of United States immigration policy. Stretching back to the earliest days of the Republic, there are numerous examples of race-based exclusionary immigration laws like the Naturalization Act of 1790, the Asian Exclusion Act of 1875, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Asiatic Barred Zone Act of 1917, and the National Origins Act of 1924. 

Catalyzed by passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002, United States immigration policy has shifted overwhelmingly towards incarceration, militarization, and deportation in recent decades. We have witnessed how Donald Trump has weaponized our immigration system to inflict immeasurable pain, suffering, and terror on Latinx and Muslim immigrant families and individuals in particular.

By the federal government’s own admission, undocumented immigrants paid over $27 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2017, with a total spending power of $200 billion. They pay into our system and our economy yet are shut out of accessing the same government services as taxpayers who are citizens. This summer alone, amidst a pandemic that has infected and killed more Latinx Angelenos than any other race, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested and deported 300 of our community members. 545 children who our government stole from their parents remain unaccounted for. 

No nation founded on the principles of liberty and justice can claim that any human being is illegal.

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Vision

As the son of asylum seekers, immigration policy is deeply personal for Shervin. Decriminalizing our immigration system is not just about social justice - it is also about family values, compassion, and integrity to our founding ideals.

Abolish and permanently outlaw private and public for-profit prisons and detention centers.

• There are few greater perversions of justice than the monetization of carceral punishment. Private prisons and detention centers reap billions from detaining and shackling thousands of undocumented immigrants - many of whom are asylum seekers fleeing persecution - simply in the name of endless profit. 

• Here in California, despite a state law banning private prisons, the four private prisons in our state - Mesa Verda, Adelanto, Otay Mesa, and Imperial Regional - continue to operate with renewed federal contracts totalling $6.5 billion. 

Pass the New Way Forward Act.

• The New Way Forward Act would transform our immigration system towards a more just, equitable, and humanitarian approach. Most importantly, the New Way Forward Act would decriminalize migration by making improper entry and reentry a civil, as opposed to criminal, issue. Criminalization is what allowed for the separation and detention of tens of thousands of immigrant families and individuals over the past few decades. 

• The bill would also repeal the draconian Section 287(g) program which permits local police forces to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track, arrest, and detain undocumented persons and has severely worsened racial profiling. 

• Finally, the legislation would also restore fundamental due process for immigrants by eliminating mandatory detention of immigrants without the rise to release, even on bail, which has led to hundreds of people remaining behind bars for years. 

Abolish and outlaw the use of DNA testing and facial recognition technology by immigration and border enforcement officials, and federal, state, and local police departments.

• New technologies like facial recognition have been weaponized by immigration agents and police departments to racially profile, harass, and erode the privacy and dignity of Black and Latinx individuals and communities. In recent years, police have also used these technologies to track and arrest activists and protesters in a morally repugnant infringement of free speech and assembly rights. 

• These technologies are a pernicious stain on individual freedoms and must not be used by any government agency or official any longer. 

Abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

• Congress established ICE under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 in the wake of the anti-immigrant hysteria resulting from the September 11 terrorist attacks. 

• ICE is the embodiment of our militarized border and anti-humanitarian immigration policies. The horror inflicted by this agency on thousands of Latinx, Muslim, and other immigrant communities is purely reprehensible. 

• Our government has tortured, abused, raped, and forcibly sterilized immigrant women and children. No words can sufficiently articulate the enormity of these crimes against humanity. There is simply no place for an agency like ICE under a fair, just, and human-centric immigration system. 

  • Congress must also break up and defund Customs and Border Protection (CBP) by returning jurisdiction of customs authority to the Treasury Department and naturalization and citizenship authority to the State Department. 

Pass the American Dream and Promise Act.

• The American Dream and Promise Act would create a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented Americans, and provide ten years of permanent resident status for undocumented individuals who entered the country as minors. 

• The legislation would also finally establish a streamlined pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and individuals under Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure.

Pass the Reuniting Families Act.

• Similarly, the Reuniting Families Act would clear bureaucratic backlogs to employer-based and family-sponsored visas; reclassify spouses, permanent partners, and children of Green Card holders as “immediate relatives''; strengthen LGBTQ+ protections by allowing citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their partner even if the partner lives in a country that does not recognize marriage equality. It also allows children, permanent partners, and spouses of H1-B visa holders to obtain a work permit. 

  • Even more significantly, the Reuniting Families Act repeals the three and ten year bans, which historically has forced undocumented individuals to leave the U.S. while they await citizenship, despite qualifying for legal status. 

Repeal the disastrous 1996 immigration laws and related provisions.

• The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 is what created heinous policy like the three and ten year bans and mandatory detention of asylum seekers. But the law outlined many other terrible provisions that must also be repealed including permanent deportation, which has led to individuals being permanently excluded from reentry for minor violations like failing to appear for a court hearing. 

• We must also end policies such as expedited removal, which allows for deportation even without due process such as the ability to appear before an immigration judge; repeal the “Constitution-Free Zone,” which allows CBP officials to essentially “waive” Fourth Amendment protections and engage in arbitrary stops and searchers and to operate checkpoints up to 100-miles inside our borders; and ensure immigration judges are empowered to utilize case by case discretion. 

Permit all deported Veterans who were honorably discharged to return to the United States and cease the practice of Veteran deportation. 

• The United States allows non-citizens to serve in our armed forces, yet reserves the right to deport them with impunity despite their immense sacrifices towards our common defense. This outrageous and inexcusable policy erodes our national security and abdicates our federal responsibility to our Veterans. 

Fully fund and move jurisdiction of immigration and asylum courts from the Department of Justice to the independent Judiciary.

• Unlike other federal court systems, our immigration courts are funded and managed under the Executive Branch by the Department of Justice. Unfortunately, this has aided in the politicization of our immigration system as anti-immigration federal officials can easily stifle proceedings within immigration and asylum courts, create backlogs, and easily replace judges with political cronies. It is no wonder, then, that our backlog of citizenship cases surpassed 1.2 million people.