Scapegoating Immigrants
Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
April 15, 2005
John Conyers, Jr. is a United States Congressman representing Michigan's 14th district.

Like a bad cold, anti-immigration legislation is back again. Last year, the GOP tried to attach anti-immigrant provisions to the legislation on 9/11 intelligence reform, even though the 9/11 commissioners and the vast majority of the 9/11 families opposed their inclusion. This year, House Republicans have repackaged their anti-immigrant agenda into the so-called "REAL ID Act," which they attached with little notice to the House version of the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations legislation.

The legislation includes numerous provisions limiting our asylum laws, making it easier to deport legal immigrants, denying immigrants long-standing habeas corpus rights, imposing onerous new driver's license requirements on the states, and waiving all federal laws concerning the construction of security fences and barriers. If enacted into law, this legislation will close America's doors to Cubans fleeing Castro; religious minorities escaping religious persecution; and women fleeing sex trafficking, rape and forced abortions.

The asylum provisions would make it significantly harder for people fleeing persecution to prove their asylum claims by raising the evidentiary requirements and imposing harsh new corroboration requirements. Refugees who cannot meet the higher standards will be returned to countries where they were persecuted, possibly to face terror, torture and death. In essence, the proponents are using the public's fear of terrorism to radically change asylum law for all asyleesâ€â€