4 FEBRUARY 2021
Senate Republicans Carry On Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Legacy
WASHINGTON, D.C.— As the Senate takes up legislation to address the pandemic, Senate Republicans have introduced a series of poison pill, anti-immigrant amendments. In response, Kerri Talbot, Deputy Director of the Immigration Hub, issued the following statement:
“It is unconscionable that Senate Republicans are rolling out a whole menu of amendments that only seek to divide Americans, villainize immigrants, and score political cheap-shots. Make no mistake, Donald Trump may no longer be in the White House, but Trumpism lives on in the halls of Congress. Rather than proposing solutions that will put America on the path to recovery or ensuring that as many people as possible can receive a vaccine, Republican senators such as Pat Toomey, Todd Young and Tom Cotton went out of their way to attack immigrants and propose amendments that divide Americans and undermine pandemic relief efforts in their own states.
“If Senate Republicans want to unite the country and turn the page on Trump’s legacy of division, they must put aside their hateful agenda for the good of the country. Large majorities of American voters from both parties and all regions of the country support fair, humane immigration reforms instead of the policies of the past president— the very policies that the GOP proposed today.”
Among the poison pill amendments introduced by Senate Republicans:
Amendment #54 on Denying Mixed-Status Families COVID Relief
The amendment aims to exclude mixed-status families from receiving economic impact payments. Currently, none of the stimulus payments enacted so far have included undocumented immigrants and neither has the Biden plan. Stimulus payments have unfairly imposed a “marriage penalty” on millions of US citizens and denied them payments because they were married to immigrants or their families included immigrants. Excluding these families fails to power the country’s economic recovery.
Amendment #553 on State and Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws
The amendment would sanction and strip funding from so-called sanctuary cities. Proposals against sanctuary jurisdictions reduce community trust in local police, encourage racial profiling, and keep victims or witnesses of crimes from coming forward.
Amendment #687 on Remain in Mexico
The amendment sought to preserve the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the Remain in Mexico policy. The policy has led to the forcible return of tens of thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants to some of the most dangerous regions of Mexico where they have waited months, many without access to food, shelter, and basic services, for U.S. immigration court hearings—resulting in a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe. MPP is a stain on this country’s treatment of those seeking protection, and we must immediately end it as it rebuilds an asylum system for those seeking safety in the United States.
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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.