Advancement Project National Office Celebrates H.R. 6, Vows to Continue Fight to Decriminalize Migration
WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, March 12, Congress introduced H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, outlining a path to citizenship for over 2 million people. Losmin Jimenez, Director of Advancement Project National Office’s Immigrant Justice Program, released the following statement in response:
“We welcome H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, the most inclusive immigration bill addressing the needs of immigrant youth and people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED).
“This legislation provides permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship without adding additional surveillance, enforcement, and border militarization for immigrant youth and individuals with TPS and DED. TPS holders include individuals from Haiti, Guinea, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nicaragua, Nepal, Honduras, and El Salvador. Currently, Liberia is the only country granted DED. Over 2 million people lost temporary protections in the last two years as the administration worked its way through its xenophobic wish list of a racial purge.
“While we support this legislation, we also acknowledge that many immigrant youth would not benefit from this legislation because of the problematic dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ immigrants in the legislation. There is no acknowledgement of the over-policing of communities of color and implicit bias in the criminal justice system resulting in overrepresentation of Black and Brown people in jails, prisons, and immigration detention. Lastly, we believe in a fundamental right to migration that is not contingent on education, military service, or economic contributions, but on the person’s inherent worth as a human being.
“We will continue to fight for a country where migration is decriminalized.”
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