Thompson Statement on GOP Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Family Bill
(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement on House Republicans’ new immigration legislation:
“Speaker Ryan’s immigration bill is nothing more than a cruel political exercise to rally the right and enshrine President Trump’s terrible and heartless anti-family immigration policies into law. This extreme bill does little to address crises of the President’s own creation—separating families and terminating the DACA program. Further, it significantly restricts legal immigration, the hallmark of our democracy. Fixing our broken immigration system should – and could – be a bipartisan process that the American people support. Democrats won’t support this bill and we will act to stop it. The President has said he would veto it, so why is the Speaker wasting time on a bill that is dead on arrival?”
“This bill fails the nearly two million Dreamers and provides them no permanent solution. By tying a Dreamer fix to border wall funding, this bill would allow the Republicans and President Trump to hold hostage in perpetuity those that know this country as their only home. Even if Dreamers manage permanent residence with this new process, it could take them more than two decades. This is not a fix or even a temporary band-aid, it is a false promise to give cover to some Republican moderates who rightly expect to face the wrath of voters in November.”
“Any notion that this bill ends family separation is a bold-faced lie. The Trump Administration is brutally separating families at the border because they choose to as a deterrent. This bill does not stop this inhumane, un-American, anti-family practice. Coming from the party that has preached family values for decades, this should be appalling to all.”
“Democrats are willing to work with Republicans on real solutions that the American people support but only if they act in good faith. We will not allow immigrants families and children to serve as bargaining chips. We will not allow this bill serve as a trojan horse for the President’s extreme anti-immigrant policies. This bill should be tossed in the trash and we must start over.”
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