Washington, D.C. — In response to the release of the White House legislative framework on immigration, Center for American Progress President and CEO Neera Tanden released this statement:
The Trump administration—led by extremists Gen. John Kelly and Stephen Miller—are now officially holding Dreamers hostage to fulfill every last part of their nativist agenda. Among other extremely harmful provisions, this proposal would slash immigration so severely as to take us back to a time when the United States overtly discriminated on the basis of race and national origin. No Democrat or Republican who claims to truly want to protect Dreamers should endorse or even entertain this proposal.
Right now the best and only way forward—as Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have both called for—is with a narrow bill that ties the Dream Act with sensible border security; Trump’s legislative framework is anything but sensible. Instead of wasting time with a bill that will be dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate, the White House and Congress should be focused on a proposal that doesn’t use Dreamers as bait to advance the entire anti-immigrant wishlist.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.