August 12, 2022

Rep. Correa Votes to Pass Historic Inflation Reduction Act

Calls for Congress to Prioritize Immigration Reform Now

Washington, D.C. — Today Rep. Lou Correa (CA-46) released the following statement after voting for the Inflation Reduction Act:

“Yet as good as this legislation is I am outraged, frustrated, and heartbroken that we forgot and left behind our Dreamers, farmworkers, and other undocumented workers in a legal purgatory. Reconciliation was the last opportunity to act on immigration reform in this 117th Congress.  It has come and gone.  It’s been 35 years since the last major immigration reform.  How many more years do hard-working, tax-paying immigrants need to wait?   

Today, this nation faces a severe shortage of workers.  Farms, food processing plants, senior centers, manufacturing plants, high-tech firms, and many other sectors of our economy do not have enough workers to get the job done.  Many undocumented workers have been here for thirty years or more filling these jobs.  They have grown roots, raised families in this nation, have American-born children, paid taxes, paid into the social security system, followed the law, and many served in our armed forces. All contributing to our great nation, and yet they continue to live in the shadows and will continue to do so.  

Unlike prior immigrant waves, today’s undocumented immigrants have no legal recourse.  There is no legal way.  About eleven million are stuck in a cruel legal purgatory.

Our economy needs more than eleven million workers.  It has been 35 years since true immigration reform has happened in America.  And it looks like, again, nothing will be done for years to come.

Dreamers are a prime example of how broken our immigration system is.  Despite having overwhelming public support on both sides of the aisle for a pathway to citizenship, nothing gets done in Washington.   

In this cruel political game of piñata, with undocumented workers “getting hit from all sides,” dreamers and those in the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) are again facing an uncertain future.  Last week, the Fifth District Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard arguments to either save DACA or end DACA.

No matter which way the Fifth District rules, DACA’s constitutionality is likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. And, dreamers and many other undocumented immigrants who have been an asset to this country will continue to face uncertainty, if not outright deportation. That would be wrong, and not good for our nation. There is no time left.  The time to act was now."

 

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