Immigration advocates are calling for changes they said could prevent family separations like one that uprooted a Wisconsin family after a man who had lived in the United States for 20 years was denied a green card.

Alex Fuentes had been trying to obtain legal status for a decade, according to advocates. After he was denied a green card, he was barred from reentering the country. To keep the family together, his wife and children suddenly left Kenosha and moved to Mexico.

The American Immigration Council said cases like Fuentes’ show the need to reform immigration enforcement policies, especially as the Trump administration’s tactics have swept up residents who were actively pursuing lawful status.

Nanya Gupta, policy director for the council, said current policies have eroded trust and that the group’s proposal would restore credibility and humanity to immigration enforcement.

“We urge leaders to act on these reforms because it is this part of the immigration system that has been weaponized against immigrants, American communities, and core tenets of our democracy,” Gupta asserted.

The council wants immigration judges to be able to impose alternatives to deportation for minor violations, such as fines, community service or probation. While the Trump administration has recently appeared to adjust how it promotes deportations, a recent Fox News poll found 54% of people disapprove of its handling of immigration.

The council’s plan includes immediate pathways for long-term undocumented residents to gain permanent status.

Dara Lind, senior fellow for the council, said a credible immigration system should give people who want to follow the rules a way to do so, while still holding accountable those who do not. She argued consequences should be appropriate to the violation, rather than using deportation as a blanket measure.

“If you have the kind of compelling positive equities that we see in headlines every day when people are torn out of their communities, instead of deportation being the only option for them, that they have an alternative way to get right with the law that they may very well have been trying to get right with for several years,” Lind recommended.

The council said about 13 million undocumented immigrants are living in limbo in the United States, most of whom arrived before 2009 and have no clear path to legal status.

Last week, the Trump administration announced people seeking U.S. green cards must now return to their home countries to apply.

Source: Public News Service