Progressives For Immigration Reform Unveils Proposal For Comprehensive Immigration Reform

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) today announced a new proposal for comprehensive immigration reform, centered on four main elements:

* Reduce annual immigration into the United States from its current 1.2 million to between 300,000 and 550,000 people.

* Rework trade and foreign aid policies to improve conditions for people in our major immigration sender countries.

* Mandate the use of E-verify for all new hires and enforce serious penalties on employers who hire workers illegally.

* Avoid any expansion of "guest worker" programs.

"Once every few decades, the stars align for major immigration legislation," noted PFIR executive director Leah Durant. "It looks like the United States may be at such a juncture now. But too often immigration policy is made piecemeal, with a failure to consider those policies' full impacts, including their economic and ecological impacts."

"PFIR urges Congress and the Obama administration to instead take this opportunity to refashion immigration policy so as to best further the common good. In this spirit, I and my board of directors have developed a new proposal for comprehensive immigration reform solidly grounded in progressive political principles."

According to Durant, enacting these four policy changes would go a long way toward creating a sensible, fair and sustainable immigration policy for the United States in the 21^st century. One highlight of the proposal is its recommendation to significantly reduce overall immigration levels to the United States. 

"With immigration now the main driver of rapid U.S. population growth, we need to cut immigration in order to stabilize our population and create a sustainable society," said Durant. "With tens of millions of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants unemployed and underemployed and continued sluggish job growth, we need to reduce immigration in order to help find jobs for those people who are already here."

Details of PFIR's new comprehensive immigration reform proposal can be found on their website at www.pfirdc.org.

SOURCE Progressives for Immigration Reform