FCNL Supports the Reuniting Families Act

Apr 22, 2010

4 June 2009

Dear Member of Congress:

I write on behalf of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers) to applaud Representative Michael Honda (CA) and 55 original co-sponsors for introducing the Reuniting Families Act (H.R. 2709), a bill which would implement critically needed reforms to the U.S. family immigration system and restore family unity as a fundamental principle of U.S. immigration policy. We urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 2709.

As people of faith, we believe family is the bedrock of U.S. society and is critical in the development of healthy individuals and strong communities. Separating families for long periods of time can create severe emotional and financial hardship. But while family unification has long been considered the foundation of the U.S. immigration system, in the current system siblings of U.S. citizens wait between 10 and 22 years to be reunited, and children and spouses of permanent residents must wait as long as seven years to come legally to the United States. With such long delays, we are deeply concerned with the stability and well-being of U.S. families and communities. H.R. 2709 seeks to correct such unconscionable wait periods by reclassifying the children and spouses of lawful permanent residents as "immediate relatives," recapturing unused family- and employment-based visas lost to the bureaucratic system, and increasing the per-country limits on family and employment visas.

H.R. 2709 also helps ameliorate hardship faced by families who might otherwise be forced apart by current immigration laws. At FCNL, we regularly hear from parents and other family members struggling with the fact that their child and grandchildren have been, in essence, exiled to another country because of provisions which bar individuals who have been unlawfully present in the United States from utilizing the legal family immigration system. Such families are faced with the choice of either tearing one parent from their child and spouse or uprooting their entire family to another country. H.R. 2709 gives the Attorney General greater discretion to address such hardships.

H.R. 2709 also protects equal treatment under the law. Under current immigration law, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons cannot sponsor their foreign born partners for immigration, no matter how long they have been together or how committed their relationship. The Reuniting Families Act ends this long-standing denial of civil rights by allowing legal U.S. residents to petition for their foreign-born permanent partner in the same way-and with the same rigorous process of documentation-as opposite-sex couples. This provision ensures that LGBT citizens are not exiled from the United States or separated from their families because of their sexual orientation and chosen loved one.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation urges you to support this legislation and restore this nation's commitment to family values. The Reuniting Families Act would alleviate pressure on U.S. borders, enable more immigrants to utilize legal channels of immigration, and help foster the development of strong individuals and vibrant communities.

For all of these reasons, we urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 2709.

For questions or comment, please contact: Rebecca Sheff, Legislative Assistant on Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and Immigration, (202) 903-2523, rebecca@fcnl.org.

Sincerely,

Ruth Flower
Associate Executive Secretary for Legislative Programs
Friends Committee on National Legislation