By: Breakthrough, Posted: Sep 30 09

Regions: United States

Issues: Detention, Immigration , Minorities

Tags: Breakthrough, Congress, Deportation, Detention, Due Process, Fairness, immigration, Joe Wilson, justice, president obama, race, reform, Restore Fairness, Zoe Lofgren

It's time you heard the truth, but not from Representative Joe Wilson.

It's not surprising that President Obama's speech was interrupted by the now infamous phrase: "You Lie!" when the President stated that health care reform will not cover undocumented immigrants.  With immigration and race snapping back into the limelight, we are getting a preview of what will happen when immigration reform does move through Congress.  That's seeming more and more likely as Representative Luis Gutierrez announces that he will introduce immigration reform legislation in the coming months.

All the more reason we need a powerful video advocacy campaign like Restore Fairness that calls upon the U.S. government to bring back fairness and due process to our broken immigration system. The video - produced in partnership with an amazing range of 26 leading organizations spanning human rights, immigration, and community based groups, including WITNESS - features interviews with influential Members of Congress, immigration judges, civil society leaders, and ordinary families affected by harsh immigration laws.

Looking at the immigration landscape after September 11th, the video also shows a government that often arrests people without warrants, holds them in inhumane detention conditions, and deports them without fair trials.  People like Ana Galindo and her husband Walter Chavez, legal permanent residents with a 10-year-old U.S. citizen son who had their home raided without a warrant by armed immigration officers. Or June Everett, who lost her sister - a 53-year-old grandmother - due to alleged medical negligence in immigration detention.  Or Jean Pierre Kamwa, a torture survivor from Cameroon who came to the U.S. seeking freedom and shelter from persecution, but instead was greeted with 5 months in mandatory detention before ultimately being granted asylum.

These stories make up the fabric of a broken immigration system - one that will sustain more than 440,000 detainees this year alone at an estimated cost of US$ 1.7 billion. Watch Restore Fairness and tell Congress to fix our broken immigration system now.

As the Chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren says in the video: "Everybody in America under our Constitution is entitled to due process of law and we’ve fallen short in the due process arena when it comes to the whole immigration system. If we’re not going to adhere to the basic standards that are in the Constitution, everybody is at risk."

TAKE ACTION NOW:  Email your Senators and Representatives and tell them to Restore Fairness and due process to the immigration system