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Call on Bill Frist and the Senate - Justice for Immigrants!
March 29, 2006

Friends,

Witness for Peace joins LAWG in urging you to act now to influence important legislation about immigration that is being debated in the Senate this week, please act now!

Witness for Peace is committed to fighting for just U.S. immigration policies by educating U.S. citizens about the economic roots of migration and the ways in which U.S. foreign policies create conditions that push Mexicans to migrate. As part of this campaign Witness for Peace is committed to participating in actions to change these policies. Please see the end of this alert for an exciting action and delegation later this spring.

In solidarity,
The WFP Mexico Team

Dear Border Policy Advocates!

Despite all the pressure and politicking from ultraconservatives, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday sent a bill to the full Senate that actually addresses real immigration reform. No doubt the countless phone calls, letters, and street demonstrations have swayed their voting - again, many thanks to all of you who have participated in the past week to make this outcome possible - we're one step closer because of your hard work!

So here are the details - as we've asked for so many times, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Kennedy-McCain language on both legalizing the current undocumented population living in the US (the 12 million you keep hearing about) and for a future guestworker program. This means that the current undocumented would be able to get in line for citizenship without having to leave the country, and that new guestworkers would also have the option to become citizens if they desire.

In addition to these two big wins, we also succeeded in removing some of the most onerous language in the bill - the Judiciary Committee stripped the bill of language that would have made it a felony just to be present in the US without documents, and stripped language that would have made it a crime to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants.

While these are all tremendous results, we still have fighting to do on border security - the Committee approved a doubling of the number of Border Patrol agents over 5 years, and still contains provisions to expand fencing (although in Arizona only - not the House proposal to put up 700 miles of fencing).

NEXT STEPS

The Senate Judiciary Committee met an artificial deadline imposed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist by getting their bill completed before midnight Monday night. If that was to happen, Senator Frist has agreed to let that bill come to the floor of the Senate for debate this week. If the Judiciary Committee did not succeed in doing that however, he threatened to bring an enforcement only bill to the floor (much like the proposal that passed the House in December).

Now that the Judiciary Committee's bill is ready to go, Senator Frist has still not indicated whether he will fulfill his promise and bring the good bill to the floor rather than his bill. This decision will be made today, as debate begins this week. Whichever bill comes to the floor will be debated for two weeks before being passed and sent to conference with the House bill.

CALL BILL FRIST

Bill Frist now needs to hear from Americans who want the Judiciary Committee's bill to be heard on the Senate Floor. Please take 5 minutes out of your day today to ensure that we get that outcome and call Senator Frist's office with the following message:

"Don't go back on your promise. Let the Judiciary Committee's immigration reform bill be debated by the Senate. We support its approach to comprehensive immigration reform."

Couldn't be simpler!

Senator Frist's office can be reached at 202.224.3344 or by filling out the e.mail form on his website at http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorFrist.ContactForm.

We thank you for taking the time to make this important call.

Witness for Peace officially endorses the 2006 Migrant Trail Walk

The Migrant Trail Walk is intended to raise awareness about this extremely violent part within the cycle of economic violence, and Witness for Peace is proud to be a part of this binational, broad-based grassroots effort at education and action towards justice.

Witness for Peace is organizing a delegation that begins in Chiapas, Mexico where we will be meeting social justice organizations and staying in a homes of a community devastated by migration, struggling to maintain their culture and families. The delegation will then travel to the U.S.-Mexico border, meeting with more organizations and learning about the situation that migrants face in the north. The next phase of the delegation will be participating in the entire six-day Migrant Trail Walk which will include walking through the desert of Arizona, arriving in Tucson, which is the same path that thousands of migrants take each year.

If you can't participate in the delegation, you can still be part of the Walk! Organize folks in your community or contact your Regional Organizer for more information about others who are interested in participating in the Walk. See you in Arizona!!

(For more information on the delegation contact mexico@witnessforpeace.org or check out the website at http://www.witnessforpeace.org/romd/romd.html).

Save the Dates

• Week of Action for Trade Justice for Colombia, April 17-21. Contact Erik Cooke at erik@witnessforpeace.org or visit http://www.witnessforpeace.org/campaigns for more information.
• SOA Watch Lobby Days, April 23-25 in Washington, DC. Visit www.soaw.org for more information.

**WFP thanks the Latin American Working Group for its work on HR 4437 and for this alert.