Yesterday I voted no on the Fiscal Year 2015 Homeland Security Appropriations bill (H.R. 240) because of the inclusion of several amendments that undermine some of our country’s useful immigration policies. Combined, these amendments halt the implementation of the current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) programs, which are programs that provide a temporary reprieve to young people and their parents so that they may stay in the country. These individuals—who go to school and work, serve in the military, and have a clean legal record—are more American than anything else. These amendments put millions of “DREAMers” and their parents at risk of deportation—including the nearly 10,000 “DREAMers” in our community—all the while hampering DHS’s ability to prioritize the use of its limited enforcement resources against legitimate threats along our borders. While the bill passed along largely party-line voting, there is a good chance that it will not pass the Senate and will then come back to us with the offensive provisions removed and the underlying investments in homeland security retained.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 14:34:58 +0000
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