Oppose CEIRA because it:

• Ignores the reality of millions of migrant workers. CEIRA would require the 10 to 15 million undocumented workers currently living in the US to register for self-deportation and leave the country five years after the bill is passed. For workers who have lived in the country for decades, it is unrealistic to believe that they would voluntarily register to live. This program would be called Deferred Mandatory Departure.
• Does not provide a worker who registers with any guarantees that they will be able to stay in the US. To become eligible for a temporary work visa (with a five-year term), a migrant must be from a country that has entered into a bilateral accord with the US. They would have to waive all administrative or judicial review of their application to stay in the US, and pay a fee that increases every year they stay in the US. Without any guarantee that they can stay in the country, it is unlikely that many migrants would come forward.
• Continues the division of the family. CEIRA would raise only slightly the number of visas available to families of workers. This would still encourage family members to enter the US illegally in order to reunite.
• Would disrupt the ability of employers to have a stable work force. CEIRA would grant new workers a two-year visa, after which time they would be required to return home for a minimum of one year. Though the visa could be renewed for a second and third two-year period, it does not allow a migrant to work in the US longer than three, non-sequential periods of two years. This provision would put unrealistic restrictions on the labor force, and make it impossible for employers to retain good staff.
• Does not support basic labor rights for workers. Visas offered under CEIRA would only have limited portability, meaning that a worker could only change jobs to work for an employer authorized by the government to employ temporary workers. A migrant may only stay in the country for 30 days without a job. However, an employer must list a job for a minimum of 30 days before they are eligible to hire a temporary worker. Such difficult terms of mobility could lead to worker abuse if the worker thinks he/she will be deported because he/she cannot find another job in time. Also, employers are only required to provide health care if the sending country’s government does not provide it for them.
• Dramatically increases the militarization of border communities. CEIRA would mandate the hiring of 10,000 new border patrol officers, would authorize $2 billion for the acquisition of unmanned aerial vehicles, cameras, poles, sensors, and other technologies to be installed at the border, and would authorize another $2 billion for the construction of roads, fences, and barriers along the border.
• Accelerates the death of migrants at the US/Mexico border. Without the option to obtain visas for more than two years at a time, many migrants will choose to continue entering the US illegally. That fact, coupled with increased security, will push migrants into the most remote stretches of desert in the southwest in order to work in the US. We have already seen increased militarization at the border produce a record 385 deaths to date along the border this year. CEIRA would encourage that trend to continue to rise.
• Forces border communities to live in a state of siege. Already, the existing militarization of the US/Mexico border forces the ten million residents of the region to endure constant police stops and searches to verify their nationality, cities rife with light pollution as a result of 24-hour stadium style lighting designed to prevent migrants from crossing the border at night, infringements on privacy due to video surveillance of border communities aimed at detecting migrants, and dangerous traffic conditions due to Border Patrol vehicles constantly racing through communities in search of migrants. These actions all have a strong tinge of racial profiling, and would increase under CEIRA.