Outlook 2006: Congress to Look at Immigration Reform, Domestic Spying and Voting Rights

by Elenora Giddings Ivory

In this election year, immigration promises to be a primary issue on the platform of the candidates for the White House, Congress and state offices. The question of more border patrols and enforcement will top the agenda. Other immigration concerns will be the guest worker programs, education of undocumented immigrant children, and citizenship of babies born of undocumented persons. Candidates for office will have to stand up to inquiring prospective voters and say how they would vote on these concerns. Should immigrant workers be allowed easy access to work in the United States? Should in-state tuition be available to those who cannot provide proof of citizenship? Do we not want to allow automatic citizenship to all babies born in the U.S.? General Assembly policy excerpts on these questions can be found elsewhere in this publication.

Still following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Bush Administration will propose augmenting measures that could compromise our personal privacy and records - medical care, book purchases, library checkouts, etc. Is domestic spying acceptable? Congress will be faced with more inquiries about secret prisons around the world, prisons that may be used to torture suspected terrorists into submission. When questioned about this at a November 2005 press conference - where the annual report on International Religious Freedom was released - The Washington Post quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as saying, "The United States has stood for the values of human decency, of a government that respects the religious freedoms of its people, that respects the individual rights of its people, for its entire history. And let me just be very clear. We hold ... those values today as strongly as we ever have." Justice advocates will have to hold our government accountable to this assertion.

Voting rights will be watched carefully, as increased calls for poll watchers in several states will be heard through several civil rights organizations. Reauthorization of particular and vital sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act will need to be approved before expiration in 2007.

We can expect a push to pass the Houses of Worship Free Speech bill that would give pastors the freedom to endorse political candidates from the pulpit, and would allow the church to directly collect campaign contributions.

Other issues that may gain some traction in the second half of the 109th Congress will be hate crimes legislation (to include crimes based on sexual orientation or identity), public financial support for religious schools, and passage of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act.