Anti-Immigrant Goodlatte Bill Is Not a Serious Proposal for Dreamers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2018

CONTACT
Email: [email protected]
Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-384-1279

Anti-Immigrant Goodlatte Bill Is Not a Serious Proposal for Dreamers

WASHINGTON — A group of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives today introduced a new bill to that would provide inadequate relief for some immigrant youth who arrived in the U.S. as minors. The bill, cosponsored by Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Raul Labrador (R-ID) and Martha McSally (R-AZ), calls for extreme border militarization and enforcement, along with sweeping changes to portions of the immigration system. It would not provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

President Trump created a crisis when he ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in September, upending the lives of nearly 800,000 young people covered by the program.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:

“This bill fails to take into account that a vast majority of Americans, lawmakers, and the president himself agree that Dreamers should have a pathway to citizenship — and not at the expense of sweeping draconian policies aimed at terrorizing Dreamers’ parents, siblings, and loved ones.

“The same lawmakers behind this proposal were at a White House meeting yesterday at which everyone seemed to agree that the way toward finding a solution for immigrant youth was to narrow the conversation. This proposal does the opposite, seeking instead to tack on more elements of a white nationalist wish list to derail months of progress.

“The Securing America’s Future Act is nothing more than a thinly veiled poison pill, and it should be dismissed as such. We’ve been clear that the lives of immigrant youth are not bargaining chips.

“What we need is a permanent legislative fix that resolves the Trump-created DACA crisis once and for all. The solution is the bipartisan Dream Act.”

###