The Washington Post reported yesterday that key senators in the "Gang of Eight" negotiations over creating a commonsense immigration process are developing plans to reduce family visas, a decidedly anti-family stance. 

The united labor movement’s immigration principles are straight-forwardly pro-family: “Family reunification is an important goal of immigration policy and it is in the national interest for it to remain that way.”

Firstly, families strongly influence individual and national welfare. Families have historically facilitated the assimilation of immigrants into American life. Secondly, the failure to allow family reunification creates strong pressures for unauthorized immigration....Thirdly, families are the most basic learning institutions, teaching children values as well as skills to succeed in school, society and at work. Finally, families are important economic units that provide valuable sources of entrepreneurship, job training, support for members who are unemployed and information and networking for better labor market information.

Immigration advocates are asking the business community why they are willing to attack immigrant communities in this way and how they think those communities would respond to any politician who embraced their assault on family reunification.

United We Dream Legislative Affairs Associate Julieta Garibay released the following statement in response to the news:

What ties us together as a diverse immigrant community is our commitment not only to this country, but also to our families, and our immigration policies should reflect our country’s values. Our 11 Million Dreams campaign is all about sharing the stories of our families and our parents, the original dreamers, and fighting for a fair shot at citizenship for all of us. Politicians who try to spin our immigration system as a zero-sum game are denying the realities families live every day.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the "Gang of Eight," said in an interview Thursday that limits on family visas are likely to appear in the final package expected to be released in early April.