USA Act Represents Commonsense Approach Toward Immigration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2018

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Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-384-1279

USA Act Represents Commonsense Approach Toward Immigration

WASHINGTON — Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and John McCain (R-AZ) have announced they will introduce narrowly framed legislation intended to allow immigrant youth to apply for lawful status while addressing various border security measures. The main tenants of the legislation, which is modeled after the USA Act introduced by Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-TX), enjoys broad bipartisan support, especially in swing districts.

Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center:

“In the midst of the Trump-created crisis on DACA that has resulted in so much uncertainty for our nation’s immigrant youth and the country, this is a welcome bipartisan bill that is aimed at resolving the problem at hand rather than fanning the anti-immigrant flames.

“Immigrant youth put their trust in the government when they applied for DACA. This trust is being tested. President Trump revoked their economic and societal lifeline when he callously ended DACA, and time is running out for Congress to provide a solution to prevent these young people from losing their permission to live and work here. Our nation needs a narrowly-tailored fix to the crisis at hand, and the USA Act provides this fix. Now is not a time for political grandstanding; it’s a time to recognize that most of the country wants to see Congress solve this problem now.

“This bill is not without its problems. Our nation’s border communities already suffer from over-militarization, and any legislation that adds more boots on the ground without understanding the real needs of those communities is simply a waste of taxpayer dollars. Still, at a time when pursuing an extremist agenda is too often mistaken for legislating, it is refreshing to see a piece of carefully crafted bipartisan legislation.”

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