Senators Menendez (D-IL) and Kennedy (D-MA) introduced S. 3594, the Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act. The bill would preserve basic due process rights for U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and workers involved in labor disputes who are swept up in immigration raids. Read more at the National Immigration Forum.

S.3114, introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), would codify many of the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its report on the U.S. asylum process.

The White House/Senate compromise immigration bill, negotiated during the summer of 2007, attempted to provide more resources for enforcement, establish a temporary worker program, replace the current family- and employer-based immigration system with a point system, and legalize undocumented immigrants. The bill also included the DREAM Act to legalize undocumented immigrant students and AgJOBS to legalize undocumented farmworkers. S. 1348 and S. 1639.

Sponsored by Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), H.R. 7255, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act of 2008 would implement important reforms to the immigration detention system. In recent years, immigration detention and deportation rates have risen dramatically, with more than 30,000 people in detention on any given day and more than 300,000 deported in 2007 alone. This bill would improve detainee access to telephones and medical care, promote alternatives to detention, and protect unaccompanied children apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security.

Representative Zoe Lofgren introduced H.R. 5950, the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008, to ensure immigration detainees receive access to basic medical care while in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security.

Learn more about the number of deaths in immigration detention.

First introduced in 2006 by Congressman José E. Serrano (D-NY), H.R. 1176, the Child Citizen Protection Act would restore partial discretion to immigration judges in cases where removal of an immigrant is clearly against the best interest of a child that is a United States citizen. Currently, there is no discretion to consider the harm separation would cause to the U.S. citizen child.

Introduced by Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), H.R. 1645, the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act sought to tighten border security and interior enforcement, establish a stronger employment verification system, provide a program for future flow of immigrant workers, overhaul the family immigration system, create an earned legalization program for undocumented people in the U.S., and facilitate integration.