Family Values and Immigration
For a thoughtful post on the ways in which proposed immigration “reform” legislation undercuts family values, see Anil Kalhan’s post on today’s Dorf on Law blog. A quick preview:
“[T]he White House/GOP Senators’ proposal might legitimately be understoodas a significant anti-family shift in the current reform debate.However, what might easily be lost in this discussion is the extent towhich the proposal might also be understood as simply the continuationof a trend, for the immigration policies enacted in the last decade — especially the legislation signed into law by President Clinton in 1996 — alreadyhave devalued immigrant families to a significant extent. Ten yearslater, one doesn’t have to look very hard to find stories of familiesdevastated by the vast expansion of deportation grounds to encompassminor crimes and the elimination of opportunities for many long-timeresidents to seek individualized, discretionary relief from deportation.”
-jmc