Reuniting American Families Act

May 26, 2011

H.R. 1796, introduced by Rep. Mike Honda on May 6th, is a family immigration bill designed to prioritize family unification in the legal immigration system. The Reuniting Families Act (RFA), with 74 original sponsors in the House, will help families reunite with their loved ones more rapidly by changing the classification of spouses and children and exempting them from numerical caps on family immigration.

RFA also includes the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in its entirety, which eliminates discrimination in immigration law against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans and their foreign-born partners. FCNL supports keeping families of all kinds together, and we actively lobbied on UAFA in the last Congress. We thank Rep. Honda for including it in his version of the bill.

Family unification is a priority for the FCNL immigration program. Families that are together mean happier, more nurturing homes and healthier communities, which result in a more vital and productive society. For this reason, along with the delays and backlog that keep families separated by borders for years, we strongly oppose raids, mass deportation and detention of noncriminal immigrants. These enforcement measures separate families and disrupt communities. Congress' failure to reform the legal immigration system, which is severely outdated, has resulted in too many divided families. We urge Congress to pass legislation that emphasizes humane enforcement, alternatives to detention and family unification. The Reuniting Families Act is a crucial step in the right direction.

Ask your representative to be a cosponsor, or thank them if they already are.