We at Transfirex are alarmed at the memorandum issued by the Department of Homeland Security on February 20, 2017: Memorandum from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Subject: Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest. This memorandum is unnecessarily causing a great deal of anxiety and fear in immigrant communities and will prove to make us less safe.
The purpose of the DHS memo is to give guidance to enforcement agencies on executing the U.S. immigration laws. While it prioritizes removal of undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of crimes, the order makes it clear that law enforcement can deport any undocumented immigrant (“alien”). Moreover, it encourages state and local law enforcement agencies to have their officers “designated as an “immigration officer” for the purposes of enforcing federal immigration law.” The memorandum specifies that the Director of ICE shall “expeditiously hire 10,000 agents and officers, as well as additional operational and mission support and legal staff necessary to hire and support their activities.”
For sixteen years, through our client services, we at Transfirex have supported lawful pathways to residency and U.S. citizenship. While we respect that the United States has the right to enforce immigration laws, we assert that the problem of undocumented immigration into the United States is not an enforcement issue, but rather an issue of broken policies. The U.S. Congress has failed the American people by failing to bring legislative solutions to our immigration policies. Immigrants are a cornerstone of the greatness of American society; we value all immigrants, legal and undocumented, who are making positive contributions to our society and the quality of our daily lives.
Rep. Beto O’Rourke from El Paso, in a compassionate interview on NPR made it abundantly clear that this memorandum will make us less safe. As he described it, this act “making every single, unauthorized immigrant in this country a priority …is something I haven’t seen in my lifetime.” While Dreamers are exempt in this memorandum, Rep. O’Rourke said that “for everyone else, this is creating intense anxiety and fear. …in El Paso, folks are cancelling court dates.” He cited El Paso as the safest city in America and said that is was, “in part, because every part of our community, including undocumented immigrants, feels comfortable working with local law enforcement in our court system. When, after this order, sheriff deputies and El Paso police officers become deputized Federal Immigration enforcement officers, you’re not going to have that cooperation, you’re not going to have immigrants coming forward to report crimes or testify, serve as witnesses in trials; that’s going to make this country, our communities and the state of Texas less safe, not more safe.” …[This memo] will make us less safe at an expense of tens of billions of dollars, unnecessarily spending money on a border that has never been more safe than it is today… We need comprehensive immigration reform; …You can try an enforcement-only approach… or you can get at the underlying issues. …Our best traditions involve accepting asylees, refugees, those who are fleeing terror and violence like the young immigrants fleeing Central America. This new proposal yesterday would have us turn our backs on those asylum seekers and ask the country of Mexico…to warehouse young children fleeing Central America coming to the U.S. This is a solution in search of a problem, that we just don’t have today.”
We wholeheartedly agree with Rep. O’Rourke. We call on Congress and the President to work for immigration reform and to develop effective foreign policy and work with willing countries to assist those countries suffering from complex problems which make it impossible for some of their citizens to thrive in safety and security.
We at Transfirex support our immigrant community here locally. In this rapidly changing immigrant environment, we would like to support the community by further reducing the price for personal documents needed for USCIS. Effective immediately through the end of March 2017, we will offer flat rate pricing of $40/page for personal documents for USCIS for Spanish, French, Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish documents.