Senate Committee Exempts Humanitarian Assistance to Immigrants

From the website of Senator Durbin:

The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved an amendment authored by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that would help ensure that charitable organizations and local churches would not be prosecuted for providing humanitarian assistance to an undocumented immigrant. Durbin's amendment was approved in a bipartisan vote of 10 to 7. . . .

Durbin said that while the original bill included an exception for humanitarian assistance, the exception only protected individuals, not organizations, like churches, hospitals, or schools. Furthermore, the exception only applied to aid provided in emergency situations and aid given without compensation.

Durbin’s amendment expands the humanitarian exception to cover organizations. It makes it clear that humanitarian assistance would include housing, counseling, and victim services. And it strikes the provisions that limit the humanitarian assistance exception to emergency situations and to assistance that is rendered without compensation. . . .

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to every member of this Committee in support of the Durbin amendment.

HT: Howard Friedman (though it's not on his blog yet)

Tom