These talking points can be used to push back on immigration enforcement provisions by the Department of Homeland Security--including recent stepped up enforcement through I9 Audits and a decision to require federal contractors to use E-Verify. They can also be used to respond to deportation-only legislation--such as the SAVE Act--which was introduced in the House July, 2009.
 
More of the Same Costly Ineffective Policies:
• We all want immigration enforcement, but the Republicans' costly, deportation-only line of attack is like painting the house when the roof is on fire.  It's not just too little effort, too late; it entirely misdirects any meaningful effort to fix our country's immigration problems.
 
• We all believe in ending illegal immigration, but the Republicans' tired strategy of enforcement without reform has failed over and over again. Instead or restoring dignity and control, these rules will just lead to more misery, more worker exploitation, and more hate and resentment--all at the cost of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
 
"E-Verify" Regulations will Lead to Dysfunction and Discrimination:

• Relying on E-Verify as a tool for employee verification is like relying on an AIG executive to lead an economic recovery plan. Verifying workers based on a backlogged system full of discrepancies will lead to unfair firings of Americans workers and untold misery for many of our nation's hardest, most underpaid workers. '
 
• This E-verify requirement will put all workers including U.S. citizens at risk by checking immigration status with the deeply flawed Social Security Administration database. The Social Security Administration itself reports that there are more than 17.8 million clerical errors in the system, which could result in 2.5 million people a year being misidentified as unauthorized for employment.
 
• This means that millions of workers and their employers will be forced to run the Social Security Administration's bureaucratic gauntlet in order to keep their jobs. In most cases, employers aren't likely to wait out the red tape to re-verify a worker. As a result, this will further jeopardize economic recovery by expanding job loss, undermining employer confidence and thrusting millions of hardworking, legal families into a web of uncertainty.
 
Throwing More Money at Virtual Border Fence is like Throwing Money in the Trash

• Since 1986, we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars militarizing the U.S. Mexico border, but our success at apprehensions as gone down.
 
• Today, at a time when our Department of Homeland Security is more stretched than ever, we're letting bad politics lead us down the same dead end--throwing away billions of taxpayer dollars on policies that have failed again and again.

American People Want Comprehensive Pragmatic Solutions; Not More of the Same Failed Piecemeal Approaches:
 
• If the 2008 Election delivered any sort of immigration message, it is that the American people want solutions, not demagoguery.  It's imperative that we see real progress on this issue and stop tolerating these so-called 'solutions' that do more harm than good.
 
• How much more wasted taxpayer dollars, worker exploitation, chaos, and human misery do we need before we learn that these costly deportation-only tactics do not fix anything?
 
• Our immigration problems will not go away until we require undocumented workers to get into the system.
 
• A comprehensive solution would couple enforcement at the border and in the workplace with a path to earned legalization for all hard working immigrants. It will also replace guest worker programs with a system that guarantees immigrant workers full labor and civil rights protections, and a road to U.S. citizenship. Done together, these reforms will finally restore the rule of law and eliminate an informal labor market that drives down wages and labor protections for all U.S. workers.
 
Not Consistent with American Values

• Rounding up hardworking mothers and fathers and locking them up far away from their young children does not make this country stronger; it shatters families and spreads fear and isolation.
 
• Immigrants are a part of the fabric of our society-they are our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends. These punitive enforcement measures are moving us further away from our national values of fairness, tolerance, and opportunity for honest hard work. Punitive attacks, family destruction, and harassment without hope - is shameful and fundamentally un-American.
 
For more information, please contact Ali Jost, SEIU Immigration Communications Coordinator, at ali.jost@seiu.org or at 202-730-7159