US lawmakers seek immigration overhaul
INFLUENTIAL American lawmakers, including Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, have urged President-elect Joe Biden to reverse the immigration policies of Donald Trump, as they introduced a resolution, seeking reform of the immigration system that is just, empathetic and fair.
Jayapal and several of her Congressional colleagues on Friday in a resolution urged Congress to create humane, community-based alternatives to detention, and revamp the current deportation system to include, among other things, guaranteed access to legal representation.
Jayapal along with congressmen Jesús Chuy García, Veronica Escobar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Judy Chu, and Yvette Clarke unveiled a Roadmap to Freedom Resolution as a progressive vision to transform the immigration system to one that is focused on dignity and rooted in the needs and lives of impacted people.
The Roadmap to Freedom Resolution will be introduced at the beginning of the 117th Congress. This immigration reform proposal develops and implements a Roadmap to Freedom
by promoting citizenship, protecting and strengthening a fair process centered on family unity, promoting and preserving diversity and establishing a just, humane immigration system.
Additionally, it ensures federal immigration agencies are fair and accountable, establishes a humane and effective border policy, recognises the value of all work and promotes healthy communities.
The resolution also promotes social, civil and economic integration while modernising and strengthening humanitarian pathways to the US. The resolution addresses root causes of migration as well.
‘As a lifelong immigrant rights organiser and one of only 14 naturalised citizens serving in Congress, I know that we must do far more than simply reverse the harmful, xenophobic policies of the Trump Administration that inflicted maximum cruelty on immigrants and families,’ Jayapal said.
‘Our immigration system has been broken for decades, and we must finally reform it in a humane way that focuses on respect, dignity, family unity and real opportunity for all immigrants,’ she said.