Title
Urging the 113th Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform as outlined in this resolution that keeps families together, upholds our values as a nation, promotes economic growth, and creates a fair immigration system guided by respect for the human rights of all persons.
Body
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia has long recognized the need for comprehensive federal immigration reform, having passed Resolution #100027 in 2010 and Resolution #060230 in 2006 in support of such reform; and
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia is a diverse city with immigrants from many parts of the world, who work, own homes, open businesses and contribute to the economic, social, and cultural well-being of the City; and
WHEREAS, Growth in Philadelphia's population and small businesses over recent decades has been significantly driven by immigrants, who bring new life and investment to our City's neighborhoods and commercial corridors; and
WHEREAS, Above all, we believe in the human dignity of all Philadelphia residents, regardless of immigration status; and
WHEREAS, The deficiencies of our country's immigration system have held back our economy, and fostered a sense of divisiveness and fear throughout immigrant communities in the City of Philadelphia and throughout America; and
WHEREAS, Countless people are lost in a federal immigration and detention system that has become fundamentally broken and plagued by abuse; and
WHEREAS, Record increases of deportations in recent years have tragically broken apart loving families, with over 800,000 people deported in just two years, many of them parents of United States citizen children, also causing thousands of those children to be pushed into the foster care system at risk of permanent legal separation from their parents; and
WHEREAS, In the absence of federal legislative action on immigration, state legislative proposals that are anti-immigrant and even unconstitutional have created a persistent distracti...
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