As you finish opening your Christmas cards, vowing to yourself that you'll get an early start next year and actually send yours out on time, you can thank German immigrant, Louis Prang, for the custom of exchanging greeting cards at Christmas. Prang originally created Christmas cards for England's popular market. In 1875, he expanded the business and began offering Christmas greeting cards in the U.S. for the first time, earning him the title "father of the American Christmas card."

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Today is International Migrants Day. Back in 2000, the United Nations passed a resolution proclaiming December 18 as International Migrants Day to reflect its adoption of the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families Resolution. The resolution respects the "full protection of the human rights of all migrants, and...the need to make further efforts to ensure respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants."

Organizations across the country are holding events and activities in recognition of International Migrants Day, just days after Congressman Luis Gutierrez introduced immigration reform legislation in the House. The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) joined other immigrant rights groups in commending Rep. Gutierrez for his action but the organization pointed out that we must do a better job of protecting immigrants' human rights. From the press release:

"We still have a long way to go to achieve meaningful immigration reforms," declared Catherine Tactaquin, NNIRR's Executive Director. "In the meantime, immigrants are experiencing intense policing, tens of thousands are detained, and their due process rights blatantly violated and ignored." She continued, "While Rep. Gutierrez's proposed legislation includes some needed protections for our vulnerable communities, it continues to treat immigration as a 'national security' issue and stops short of doing away with the most egregious aspects of our flawed immigration system."

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Beginning January 4th, the months (and in some cases, years) asylum seekers spend in detention while their cases are pending will be significantly reduced because of a new policy announced yesterday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). From the ICE press release:

The revised guidelines announced today, effective Jan. 4, 2010, will permit parole from detention-which temporarily authorizes aliens to enter the United States without being formally admitted or granted immigration status-of aliens arriving at U.S. ports of entry who establish their identities, pose neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, have a credible fear of persecution or torture, and have no additional factors that weigh against their release. The new guidelines also mandate that all such arriving aliens should automatically be considered for parole--a significant change from prior guidance that required aliens to request parole in writing.

To understand why this policy change is an important step in the right direction, I urge you to read this year's report from Human Rights First, U.S. Detention of Asylum Seekers: Seeking Protection, Finding Prison. We have a responsibility to ensure public safety and determine the credibility of those seeking asylum, but it is appalling that we would treat those who come to this country seeking protection from prosecution like criminals until proven otherwise.

Earlier Today, Rep. Luis Gutierrez introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009, or "CIR ASAP" for short. The bill has close to 90 cosponsors, and according to the Immigration Policy Center, seeks to:

• Enhance border security and achieve effective immigration enforcement
• Improve conditions of detention
• Increase protections during enforcement activities
• Create an employment verification system to help employers authorize new hires
• Reduce the backlog in family and employment immigrant and nonimmigrant visa processing
• Keep U.S. families together
• Prevent future illegal immigration
• Provide a program to legalize qualified undocumented immigrants
• Provide legalization through the DREAM Act
• Support the AgJOBS Act of 2009
• Strengthen America's workforce with the creation of a Commission on Immigration and Labor Markets, revisions to temporary worker programs and changes to the H-2B and EB-5 visa programs
• Closely examine immigration fees
• Improve the naturalization process and integration to encourage citizenship among immigrant communities

The full text of the legislation is not yet available on the Senate website, but a summary is provided by the Immigration Policy Center.

What the bill does not include is language for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families. You can read more about this issue on Immigration Equality's blog.

Keep in mind that this is not "the immigration reform bill to end all bills." We should expect to see additional immigration proposals in the months ahead. Senator Schumer is on-point to deliver immigration reform legislation for consideration in the Senate in 2010.