Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi said the incoming Democratic House will address “critical immigration issues in the new Congress,” including putting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients on a path to citizenship and passing legislation protecting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, some of whom have had permission to live and work in the U.S. for as long as two decades now.
“Our House Democratic Majority will once again pass the Dream Act to end the uncertainty and fear inflicted on patriotic young men and women across the country,” Pelosi said in a statement. “We will protect TPS recipients and those fleeing unimaginable violence.” Currently, the courts have blocked the administration from ending protections from some of these immigrants, but because it is expected to take this fight to the Supreme Court, groups have been urging Pelosi to bring up legislation within the new Congress’s first 100 days.
“While we currently have federal court injunctions in place correcting temporary protections to over 800,000 Dreamers and over 300,000 TPS holders,” said Avideh Moussavian of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), “we need clean permanent solutions from Congress and call on Democratic Representatives to make this legislative a priority within the first 100 days of the new Congress.” Nearly 90 percent of Americans—“including three-quarters of Republicans and conservatives”—want DACA recipients to stay, according to one survey last year.
Pelosi’s statement also pledged to not “squander billions of dollars” on a stupid border wall, and said the Democratic House will also “hold the Trump Administration accountable for their inhuman policy of separating families, and the trauma and anguish they have inflicted on vulnerable children and families at our border.” The administration continues to have children kidnapped from parents as a result of this policy in custody, 130 days past a federal judge’s deadline.
The new Congress must remember that Democrats turned out in historic numbers to protect vulnerable families, not to fund or build a monument to Trump’s racism at the border. “Democrats know that immigrants, with their courage, optimism and determination to make the future better for their families, make America more American,” Pelosi continued. “We will continue to work every day to ensure the American Dream remains in reach for everyone.”