For Immediate Release: December 14, 2023/Press Contact: Eleazar Meléndez, 212-729-6672
Miami, Florida — Miami Freedom Project is urging the Biden-Harris administration and Senate leaders to to stand firmly on the side of immigrant families during ongoing negotiations with House leadership.
We’re deeply alarmed by recent indications that White House and Senate negotiators would consider egregious concessions to immigration and asylum policies in order to secure a larger supplemental funding package.
According to media reports, ending the successful humanitarian parole programs, expanding the so-called “fast-track deportation” process, and returning to many of the cruel anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration are under consideration. That GOP leadership would be willing to hold bipartisan priorities around national security interests hostage to further their anti-immigrant agenda is further proof that they are not seeking real solutions but pandering to an extreme base that doesn’t represent the majority of American voters who favor secure and humane immigration
Ana Sofia Pelaez, executive director of Miami Freedom Project, has issued the following statement on the matter:
“The proposed policies would harm long-settled families, increase the number of detentions and deportations, and further obfuscate an already harrowing asylum process among other harms. The Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to reunite families and create a more orderly immigration system, including through the implementation this year of humanitarian parole, has been a success. The program should be expanded and additional work authorizations should be made available to long-term immigrants who are contributors to the economy and our communities. They deserve our respect and gratitude – not to be used in a cruel game of partisan brinkmanship.”
Miami Freedom Project joins immigrant rights organizations across the country in asking President Biden and Senate negotiators to reject any “compromise” that returns us to the harmful policies of the previous administration. As a country that is founded and benefits from immigration, we need to move forward together.
