Current border enforcement strategy is a failed policy that must be re-evaluated. Since 1998, more than 2000 migrants - men, women, and children - have lost their lives in the deserts of the U.S. - Mexico borderlands, trying to make their way into the United States. These tragic and unnecessary deaths must stop. The border blockade strategy at the U.S. - Mexico border, drives migrants into remote desert regions and has failed to stem the flow of immigrants into the United States. Indeed the border control strategy has never in United States history successfully stemmed the flow of immigrants. We recognize the right of all nations to control their borders, but enforcement measures must be applied proportionately and humanely.

The status of undocumented persons currently living in the U.S. must be addressed. Workers and their families currently living in the U.S. must have access to a program of legalization that offers paths to permanent residency and eventual citizenship for workers and their families. Legalizing the undocumented workforce helps stabilize that workforce as well as their families. A stable workforce strengthens the country.

Family unity and reunification must be the cornerstone of the U.S. immigration system. Migrants enter the United States either to find work to escape war or persecution or to reunite with family members. Families must be allowed to reunite legally and in a timely manner as well as to immigrate together as a unit.

An employment-focused immigration program must allow workers and their families to enter the U.S. to live and work in a safe, legal, orderly, and humane manner through recognized ports of entry. International workers' rights must be recognized and honored in ways that protect: the basic right to organize and collectively bargain, job portability, easy and safe travel between the U.S. and homelands, achievable and verifiable paths to residency, and a basic human right of mobility.

Immigration policy must recognize that root causes of migration lie in environmental, economic, and trade inequities. Experiences of Mexico and countries further south demonstrate that current trade and aid strategies deeply and negatively impact workers, their families, and the environments in migrants' homelands. This is forcing a quest-for-survival based migration of unparalleled proportions. Trade agreements must be negotiated in ways that build mutual and just international relationships. Such agreements must be designed to meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations' abilities to meet their needs. New strategies must include incentives for the public and private sectors to invest in economically and environmentally sustainable development in the sending communities.