I

World

Border Wars

Jewish groups stepping up efforts
on the immigration issue.

Eric Fingerhut
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington

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A20

February 26 • 2009

I

t was the forgotten issue of the

general election campaign, with
the two presidential candidates
barely mentioning it last fall. And
with so much focus on the economy, it
seems to have receded even more into
the background.
But Jewish groups aren't letting that
stop them from making a big push for
comprehensive immigration reform.
Many major Jewish
groups have signed on
to two new initiatives
in the past two weeks:
a Jewish campaign
aiming for "Progress
by Pesach" on the
immigration issue and
the larger Interfaith
Immigration Coalition
working for the enact-
ment of "humane and
equitable" reform by the
end of this year.
While Jewish groups
are urging President
Obama and Congress
to take action, they are focusing much
of their attention on education and
advocacy efforts in local communities,
hoping to see pressure bubble up to
Washington from the grass roots.
Melanie Nezer, senior director for
U.S. programs and advocacy at the
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, said
the key to success in immigration
reform is for local activists to let local
representatives know how important it
is — and that's already starting.
"In the last year we've really started
hearing from local communities that
this is something that needed to be
done Nezer said. "We really have the
grass roots pushing a lot of this
In particular, she said, the impact of
immigration raids on local communi-
ties — such as the one last May on the
Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in
Postville, Iowa, which resulted in hun-
dreds of arrests — have demonstrated
"the fallout" from problematic immi-
gration policies "in a very direct way"
Postville-like raids are a prime
motivator of the Progress by Pesach
initiative, in which groups, including

HIAS, the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs, the Anti-Defamation League,
the American Jewish Committee, the
National Council of Jewish Women,
the Reform and Reconstructionist
movements, and the Conservative
movement's Rabbinical Assembly,
have joined with local organizations.
Among their goals is to get
President Obama to issue an
executive order or other direc-
tive to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement curtailing the use of
raids as a primary tool of enforce-
ment.
The organizations are
aiming to collect 10,000
signatures by April 8, the
first night of Passover,
for a petition encour-
aging "humanitarian
immigration reform"
and decrying the "policy
of relying on raids and
enforcement tactics as
the sole means of con-
trolling immigration:'
Coalition members
argue that in addition to
denying equal protec-
tion to those detained
and splitting up families
through jailing and deportations, the
immigration raids also are expensive
for the government and seriously
impede businesses trying to make
products in a poor economy.
Jane Ramsey, executive director of
the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
in Chicago, says members of the coali-
tion will be encouraged to publicize
their petition and letters at their
activities and other Jewish community
events.
Many of the same national organi-
zations, along with others, including
United Jewish Communities and B'nai
B'rith International, are part of the
Interfaith Immigration Coalition.
The coalition's platform in favor of
"humane and equitable" immigration
reform by the end of 2009 includes
upholding family unity as a priority,
creating a process for undocumented
immigrants to earn legal status and
eventual citizenship, restoring due
process protections and reforming
detention policies, and aligning the
enforcement of immigration laws with
humanitarian values.

Agriprocessor's
raid and
aftermath
remains
a major
immigration
example.