Marty on the Issues

Defending the Homeland

Economy and Jobs

Campaign Finance Reform

Health Care

Tobacco

Crime

Energy and Environment

Women's Issues

Human Rights

Northeast-Midwest Coalition

More Issues

Immigration

For immigration assistance, click here. 

Congressman Martin Meehan supports immigration reform that protects the fundamental rights and freedom of all Americans while keeping America safe from 21st century threats. As the grandson of Irish immigrants, Marty shares the belief that immigration is a long unfolding American success story that continues to maker our country stronger. 9/11 and the threat of terrorism has posed new challenges for U.S. immigration policy. Marty’s position is that we can strengthen our borders without weakening our proud tradition as a nation of immigrants.

• Marty opposes the President's immigration policy, which would create a rotating underclass of immigrant labor with no hope of citizenship. This “guest worker” program would drive down the wages of American citizens. Marty supports allowing undocumented workers to earn their way to citizenship if they work, pay taxes, and obey the law for at least five years.

• Marty has co-sponsored legislation (HR 1684) to make higher education affordable to all students by removing the obstacles to federal higher education benefits for undocumented students. Currently federal policy blocks states from offering tuition benefits to millions of immigrant students. As a result, many children, some who have lived in the United States almost their entire lives, and may have no idea that their immigration status is in question, find higher education out of reach after they graduate from high school. Marty also believes that legal immigrants should be eligible for federal benefits including health care. 

• Marty supports a reform to the current family-based immigration system. The current backlogs of family-based petitions keep families separated for many years. Marty believes that U.S. policy should be to reunite families without unnecessary delays. 

• Marty is working to reduce backlogs and processing times for naturalization and employment documentation. Post-9/11 security measures have increased immigration backlogs and delays. This year the Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services reported that more than 6 million immigration petitions awaited processing in 2003-- a 90% increase over the backlog in 1997 and almost a 20% increase from 2002. 

• Marty has used his position on the Judiciary Committee to call for greater scrutiny into whether the Administration’s policy toward immigrants is truly advancing our security. For example, more than 5,000 citizens of foreign nations have been detained in terror-related investigations over the past two years, but only a handful have been charged with a specific terrorism-related offense. Marty supports a balanced policy that allows immigrants the right to a fair hearing.

• Marty opposes the Clear Law Enforcement of Criminal Alien Removal (CLEAR) Act (H.R. 2751). This bill would require overburdened state and local police departments to enforce federal civil immigration laws without providing them the resources or the training to do so.

• Marty authored the Posthumous Citizenship Restoration Act, which was  signed into law in 2002.  The Posthumous Citizenship Restoration Act awarded honorary citizenship to foreign-born soldiers who died as a result of their combat-service in the U.S. Armed Forces. As a result of Meehan's law, 28 deceased Irish immigrants who served in the Korean War received U.S. citizenship on October 30, 2003. Click here to read a copy of the Boston Herald editorial "A long-overdue honor," or click here to read the news release. For more information, visit the "Irish in Korea" website