The recent bill proposed to deter President Obama’s immigration actions attacks families and politicizes a humanitarian issue, U.S. Congressman Ruben Gallego said at a press conference at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse on Thursday afternoon.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to block funding from Obama’s executive action to give temporary legal status to certain undocumented immigrants. The order was given last November, and it aims to defer deportations for the parents of children who are U.S. citizens and ease restrictions on highly skilled workers and undocumented minors, among others.
“You do not have the right to call yourself the party of family values when you’re using the legislative process to break up millions and millions of people,” Gallego said.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) are immigration policies that grant temporary legal permissions to those who came to the U.S. as minors as well as their parents. Gallego said the recent bill is an attempt to get rid of those policies.
Arizona is one of 25 states involved in the current Texas v. United States lawsuit to eliminate the DACA and DAPA programs.
“I ask … our governor of Arizona — please drop these lawsuits,” Gallego said. “It is a humanitarian move to keep our families together.”
Governor Doug Ducey’s communication office did not respond to contact attempts.
Legalizing members of the undocumented community would help improve the economy of Arizona, which is important because the state is still in a recession, Gallego said. He said politicians should work together, and the President will veto this bill or it will die in the U.S. Senate.
Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo said Arizona has been ground zero for the immigration debate for the past 15 years. He said those who support this bill are prolonging the problem.
“If you aren’t happy with the executive orders, then come up with solutions,” he said. “Come up with the bills dealing with a broken national problem.”
Cristian Avila is a DREAMer and a representative of Mi Familia Vota, a national organization that promotes civic participation in the Latino community. He said this bill attacks immigrant families.
“We’re no longer afraid,” Avila said. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to continue to fight until we have an immigration reform … for a better country.”
Mexican immigrant Mayra Enriquez is one of the people who can benefit from DACA. She said she came to the U.S. when she was 13, and she wants to stay here because it is dangerous in Mexico.
“I want to see my daughters together with me in the future,” Enriquez said.
She said her daughters know she is not here legally, but she talks to them every day about her excitement for programs like DACA.
Reverend Raymond Ritari presides over the St. Matthew Parish, and said many members of his church are undocumented. He said families have been separated for too long and they live in fear.
“Some say that President Obama has overreached and overextended with regard to his executive action on immigration, and I say, as a citizen of this country … we cannot overreach on behalf of the immigrant community enough,” Ritari said.
He said it is especially important to help the DREAMers because they are working to educate themselves and improve society.
“Why prolong immigration reform? Why block progress?” He said. “Why don’t we work nonviolently to overturn, block and roll back our attitudes of mean-spiritedness, and really a lack of justice on the part of poor people who live here in this country?”
Contact the reporter at sajarvis@asu.edu
