Washington, D.C. — Tonight, the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary voted to advance legislation—the Dream Act of 2019 and the American Promise Act of 2019—that would together provide permanent protection and a path to citizenship for more than 2.5 million Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients who have long called the United States their home. Tom Jawetz, vice president for Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, released the following statement:
This historic yet party-line vote demonstrates that while the Trump administration remains intent on spreading fear and chaos, congressional Democrats are charting a course of hope and shared prosperity.
Under Republican control for eight years, the U.S. House of Representatives did nothing to help fix our broken immigration system or to bring security to the lives of immigrant youth living in fear of arrest and deportation every day. In contrast, one of the final acts that Nancy Pelosi took as speaker of the house in 2010 was to bring to the floor and pass the Dream Act; in the weeks ahead, she will be able to bring forward the Dream and Promise Act.
Millions of families around the country, including American children, spouses, friends, and coworkers, will now look to the whole House of Representatives—Democrats and Republicans—to pass the legislation before turning their attention to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican-controlled Senate.
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For more information or to speak to an expert, please contact Colin Seeberger at cseeberger@americanprogress.org or 202.741.6292.