Senator Kerry on Immigration

Fairness And Security In Immigration Policy

John Kerry believes that America needs immigration policies that are fair and safe. The United States is a diverse nation built by people from all parts of the world who are here because they believe in freedom, democracy, and justice. Immigration is central to our nation’s history, as almost all of us are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. At the same time, John Kerry believes the federal government must secure our borders so that terrorists do not use our immigration system as a means to enter the country and do us harm.

Priorities

Efficient Citizenship and Enforcement Services
John Kerry supports efforts to cut the backlog of applications pending with the Bureau for Citizenship and Immigration Services, speed up the naturalization process and reduce the wait for family visas and other important matters. John Kerry has also called for reforming and adequately funding border enforcement to ensure that only legal immigrants can enter the country.

Restoring and Protecting Benefits for Legal Immigrants
John Kerry supports efforts to restore benefits to legal immigrants. The 1996 welfare reform law made most legal immigrants, including those already in the United States, ineligible for welfare, health care and other essential programs. In the years since, some of these benefits have been restored and John Kerry remains committed to fighting for the full restoration of benefits for legal immigrants.

Supporting the DREAM Act
John Kerry supports legislation that would provide immigration relief to undocumented young people who have spent their formative years in the United States, who have graduated from high school here, and who can demonstrate good moral character. The DREAM Act repeals a law that prevents these promising young people from attending college in the United States.

Family Reunification
John Kerry believes that we should unite and not divide families by making family reunification the cornerstone of our immigration system. John Kerry supports allowing immigrants who are eligible for permanent resident visas to be processed in the United States rather than processed in their home country. He also supports restoring the discretion of immigration judges to evaluate cases on an individual basis and grant relief to deserving immigrants and their families.

Expedited Citizenship for Members of the Armed Forces
John Kerry believes the naturalization process for legal permanent residents serving in the Armed Forces should be expedited, the naturalization filing fee should be waived, and armed service members should be allowed to naturalize overseas. More than 37,000 legal permanent residents serve in the military nationally.

Earned Legalization
John Kerry supports a proposal that will allow undocumented immigrants to legalize their status if they have been in the United States for a certain amount of time, have been working, and can pass a background check. This makes sense for the economy, provides fairness to people in our communities who have worked hard and paid taxes, and will also allow us to strengthen our homeland security by bringing undocumented workers out of the shadows and into the light of greater accountability.

http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/immigration/