Current immigration laws are inhumane and counterproductive, says one Springfield group advocating for reform. Change may be on the way.

Shelly Heideman, executive director of Faith Coalition for the Common Good, says current immigration law causes unnecessary suffering and splits families apart. She advocates on behalf of immigrants like Alejandro, a legal Mexican immigrant from Beardstown who hasn’t seen his wife and two sons in a year because they had to return to Mexico in order to apply for legal status here.

Beardstown and Rushville, about an hour west of Springfield, have large populations of legal and illegal immigrants from Latin America and Africa, Heideman says. Some of the immigrants themselves estimate their numbers at about 50 percent of the towns’ populations. Illinois is home to an estimated 540,000 illegal immigrants, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“This is really an issue that many people don’t think about, but it affects so many peoples’ very lives” Heideman says. “We need change that will keep families together and not criminalize people who just come here to make a better life.”

Springfield’s own Sen. Dick Durbin, the second ranking member of the U.S. Senate, has made immigration reform a cornerstone of his service platform, and is currently working on reform legislation. Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker says the issue is personal to Durbin because Durbin’s mother, a Lithuanian immigrant, came to America to seek a better life.

“He even has her framed naturalization certificate hanging in his office,” Shoemaker says of Durbin. “In his view of America, the contribution of immigrants is right at the front.”

Shoemaker, himself a Taylorville native with three Italian immigrant grandparents, says Durbin’s future bill would fundamentally change the immigration system in America.

“It has to start with better enforcement of border security,” Shoemaker says. “That deals with upgraded patrols, because there are a lot of patrol gaps in areas with rugged terrain, and that’s where the (smugglers) do most of their work. We need to address that.”

He says the legislation would institute tougher fines on small businesses that hire illegal workers, as well as possible criminal sanctions for larger businesses that could absorb fines and continue to break the law. Upgraded, tamper-proof Social Security cards with biometric data could also aid enforcement, though that measure is still being mulled because of civil liberties concerns.

Shoemaker says the bill will not include amnesty for illegal immigrants, but will provide a “tough but fair path to citizenship.”

“They’ll probably have to pay a fine, and they’ll go to the back of the line,” he says. “But the important thing is getting them in the line. We have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country, and it just isn’t realistic to deport 12 million people.”

Part of the pathway to citizenship is the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, which would allow permanent residency for illegal immigrant students who graduate from U.S. high schools, have not been convicted of certain crimes, arrived in the U.S. before age 16 and have been in the country continuously for at least five years.

Shoemaker says the reform push is planned for this summer, and between 30 and 40 Democratic senators are already on board, with expectations for more support once bipartisan negotiations take place. However, the pace of reform depends on how long it takes the Senate to confirm the next U.S. Supreme Court justice, Shoemaker points out.

“I’m not sure they can handle two major issues like that at a time,” he says. “You know, you get farther into the fall in an election year and absolutely nothing happens around here.”

See our online edition for a longer version of this story at IllinoisTimes.com.

Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].