Corker-Hoeven Amendment and Senate Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2013

CONTACT
Adela de la Torre, 213-400-7822, [email protected]

Filing of Corker-Hoeven Amendment to Senate Immigration Reform Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Senators Corker and Hoeven filed an amendment that would alter several aspects of the immigration reform bill currently on the Senate floor. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié of the National Immigration Law Center:

“The Senate has received an excessive and expensive proposal to militarize the border in exchange for demands from the Latino and immigrants’ rights communities to create a road to citizenship for 11 million immigrants now in the country without documents.

“The amendment is so expensive, in fact, that Senator Leahy said the border militarization provision ‘reads like a Christmas wish list for Halliburton.’ This sort of expenditure translates not just to wasted taxpayer money, but to a rollback on the American values for due process and equal treatment for millions of Americans living along our border.

“We are deeply concerned that in their zeal to score a major political win, senators allowed the fundamental freedoms of border communities and aspiring citizens to be trampled.

“We will analyze the legislation and its impact on low-income immigrant families, but one thing is immediately clear: border and immigrant communities cannot — and should not — tolerate additional efforts to strip immigrants of their basic rights. Latino, Asian-American, and immigrant voters have said time and again that they want a true and direct road to citizenship. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice American good governance, fiscal responsibility, and basic rights in the process.”

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