Home for the Holidays :: Fresh Updates from RAC

The holiday season is often synonymous with family time. Big dinners with too much food, long nights with children running around, trips to visit aunts and uncles. I had a lot of time to think about ? and experience ? family time this past month on a trip to Israel I took with my parents and sister. As a 22-year-old who?s approaching the five-year anniversary of leaving her parents? home, lots of concentrated family time can undeniably have its challenges. And as an American Jew who spends much of her time in Israel shuffling from relative to relative, the emotional connection can quickly get lost amidst long drives and jet-lagged meals.

All of which made my return to my work email and my discovery of Obama?s family unity rule change all the more refreshing and humbling. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a final rule regarding visa applications for family unity waivers. Under previous immigration law, family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents applying for a green card faced extraordinary backlogs, and had to live apart for years. The new rule allows certain eligible family members to apply for a ?family unity waiver? to expedite the process.

This change, while welcome, is just a drop in the bucket in terms of fixing the broken immigration system that can tear apart families for decades at a time. This change, while important, reminded me how thankful I should be for the very ability to spend time with my family members from across the globe, and how many Americans had to spend the holiday season apart from their loved ones.

The Jewish tradition puts a premium on family. The whole book of Genesis is filled with tales of brothers and wives and parents and children. Many of our laws and traditions are predicated on a nuclear family structure, and work to reinforce the strength and importance of the family unit. In our fight for immigration reform, we must remember these values, and ensure that comprehensive reform continues the Administration?s work of uniting broken families.

Source: http://blogs.rj.org/rac/2013/01/09/home-for-the-holidays/

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