Resources

Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) and the Until We’re Free Coalition

In this letter from the Until We’re Free Coalition, a group of racial justice organizations, write: “The very history of our immigration system is rooted in a legacy of racism and oppression that has long privileged white immigrants. In fact, our immigration laws have always been used to exclude and target immigrants of color… The Biden administration has promised to turn the page on previous administrations’ racist immigration agenda. It should, therefore, ensure that people who were unjustly deported have a meaningful chance to return to their homes and families in the U.S.”

Children Thrive Action Network

Outlining policy recommendations, the Children Thrive Action Network Children writes: “Children and young people from communities of color bear a higher burden of the costs of deportation, resulting from systemic racism, social inequality, and a punitive immigration enforcement system. This factsheet outlines the available evidence on the harms to children’s safety, mental and physical health, education, financial stability, and offers recommendations for policymakers to remedy the harm. Children should be centered in immigrant policy, not be afterthoughts. Policymakers must remedy the harm through policies that promote family unity and child well-being.”

232 National, State, and Local Organizations

Led by the Immigration Hub and America’s Voice, more than 230 organizations endorsed a 2021 Immigration Action Plan for the new administration that includes: “a parole process for individuals who have been harmed by the family separation policy, visa backlogs, deportation and other hardships,” as well as a “program to allow individuals deported or excluded from the U.S. on illegal or discriminatory procedural or substantive grounds, or due to errors of fact or law, to return to process their applications and explore other forms of redress.”

90 National, State, and Local Civil and Human Rights, Labor, and Immigrant and Racial Justice Organizations

Writing to President Biden, the organizations call for “a ‘chance to come home’ program honoring the principles of family unity and second chances by allowing people enduring family separation and other hardship due to unfair deportations to apply to return to their home and loved ones in the United States.”

Roadmap to Freedom

Reps. Jayapal, Garcia, Escobar, Ocasio Cortez, Chu, and Clarke, along with FIRM Action (a grassroots immigrant rights network) crafted a “Roadmap to Freedom” resolution to introduce in the 117th Congress. The resolution calls for “creating a just and accessible process for eligible individuals who are deported, detained, or in sanctuary to reunite with their families and communities, and return home in the United States,” among other priorities.

Members of Congress have also demonstrated support for return after deportation for various constituencies, through introduction of the Protect Patriot Spouses Act; Adoptee Citizenship Act; Veteran Deportation Prevention and Reform Act; and other bills.

Children Thrive Action Network + 180 Organizations

A letter about transition priorities, signed by over 180 organizations working to defend and support children in immigrant families, includes rewriting “existing return policies to ensure a right to return to the United States for immigrants who have been deported from their families and communities.”

Interfaith Immigration Coalition 

The Interfaith Immigration Coalition’s recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration include allowing “individuals to return to the U.S. after deportation when it is in the interest of the public good and family unity.”

American Immigration Lawyers Association 

In its recommendations for the future of immigration, AILA calls for “robust policies on humanitarian parole,” one of the mechanisms that can be used to allow an individual to return to the United States after a deportation.

Immigrant Legal Resource Center

In its “Blueprint for the Next Administration,” ILRC calls for deportations to “be reviewed and individuals unjustly deported [to] be afforded opportunities to return to the US. These are important steps forward to undo the harm done by the Trump administration’s racist and xenophobic policies.”

Ohio Immigrant Alliance

In a post-election statement, the Ohio Immigrant Alliance explains that facilitating return after deportation must be part of the recovery process after four years of Trump anti-immigration cruelty. “Allowing aspiring Americans who were deported to return to the U.S. is part of the healing we need as a nation.  Let’s welcome them home.”  

Constituents

After the election, over 500 Americans signed a petition to the Biden-Harris administration in support of the: “U.S. veterans, DACA beneficiaries, spouses and parents of U.S. citizens, long-term U.S. residents, business owners, and refugees [who] have all been deported in recent years, cruelly separated from their homes and loved ones because of politics.” They are calling for return after deportation policies “to help heal this nation.” 

Ahead of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, hundreds of Americans also signed a petition “calling on the Democratic Party to include return after deportation in the 2020 national platform.” They wrote: “This applies to people with families and single individuals: everyone who considers the United States their home.” 

Currently, nearly 600 people signed a petition to President Biden that states: “Deportation is an extreme consequence for a civil immigration violation. The Trump administration wasn’t the first to deport people with cruelty, but it certainly spread the pain. This problem must be fixed by the Biden administration. We are calling for both administrative policy changes and legislative reform to bring our friends and loved ones home.”