The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
The Home /About Us
page of this website has an invitational and ‘soft’ mission statement:
Dream. Rise. Organise.
This is an interesting statement as it appears to have a link with America’s
original immigrant history. It links back to the time when thousands of people
were leaving Europe, escaping economic, religious or political hardships.
Literature containing their stories often begins with the notion of a dream –
to escape, get away or get free from some injustice. America represented the
land of the free, where opportunity awaits. It is a powerful rallying call for
action – follow the dream.
The second word ‘Rise’
also has powerful connotations. It builds on the potential for the freedoms and
opportunities stirred up by the dream. It carries a strong element of the notions around success and implications for an
upward trajectory in all aspects of life: social, cultural, educational,
employment. Its’ very vagueness is a clever ploy. It can mean anything the
reader wants it to mean.
The third word ‘Organise’
has an extra special relevance at this time in US history. It would be useful
to discover when this third word came into being in the mission statement? The
organisation has been in existence since 1986. A diverse group of grass roots
community groups and faith, labour and civil rights leaders met during the campaign
for immigration reform that eventually led to the Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1986. The key issues then were the criminalisation of
undocumented immigrant workers and the growing militarisation of the US-Mexico
border. The site has considerable
reports and resources relating to the actions and policy intentions of
President Trump. For the people involved in the organisation, this third word, ‘Organise’
must feel almost prophetic – a clarion call to face what potentially must feel
like an escalating, humanitarian crisis.
NumbersUSA
This site was located via another site named The Southern
Poverty Law Center ,https://www.splcenter.org/about. This site had listed 10 sites
which it stated were anti-immigration. It described many of these organisations
as racist and aggressively anti immigration. “in the eyes of most of these
groups, immigrants…are responsible for nearly all the countries ills, from
poverty and inner city decay to crime, urban sprawl and environmental
degradation.” Many of the actual links to
these sites were dead and made me wonder if the organisations had dwindled
during the Obama presidency. My research therefore defaulted to the one of the
few live links : numbersusa.com. The site makes a strong case for ‘not bashing immigrants’. In
other words, it is not about the people, but the numbers of people involved. It
focuses on critiques of government policy or ‘officials’ who have allowed this
state of affairs to occur. And ‘the state of affairs?’ For this organisation,
it is contained in its statement of values:
·
“The most important factor in federal
immigration policy is the numbers – the annual level of immigration.
·
Annual immigration should be set at a
level that allows the stabilization of U.S. population and long-term sustainability
of the American quality of life.
·
U.S. immigration policy should serve
the national interest and prioritize the admission of spouses and minor
children including adoptees, workers with extraordinary skills, and asylees and
refugees.
·
U.S. immigration policy should
support American workers, especially the most vulnerable, by preventing wage
suppression and unfair competition for jobs.
·
Congress, through legislation, and
the Executive branch, through enforcement policy, bear the burden of blame
for—and the responsibility to correct—problems associated with current
immigration policy.
·
Immigrant bashing, xenophobia,
nativism, and racism are unacceptable responses to federal immigration policy
failures. Race and ethnicity should play no role in the debate and
establishment of immigration policy.”
The organisation makes a strong case that it is a
forum for debate and that it insists on civility to all in facilitating the debate around immigration.
