News

May 22, 2007, San Francisco Chronicle

The powerful interest groups whose backing is critical to an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy are fracturing over the new bipartisan “grand bargain” in the Senate, setting up a brawl over changes that could tear the fragile deal apart.

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Leading immigrant groups oppose the point system because it would reduce extended family migration. Although some have held their fire, hoping to amend the legislation as it goes forward, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens and many grassroots immigrant groups have urged the bill’s defeat.

“Family reunification has been the cornerstone of our nation’s immigration policy since 1965, when the U.S. government replaced discriminatory quotas that excluded Asian immigration for generations,” said Stanley Mark, senior staff attorney for the Asian American fund. “The proposal would eliminate basic family categories that Asian Americans rely on to reunite their families. If enacted, such a policy would have devastating impacts on Asian Americans, whose families already face some of the longest delays.”

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