For Immediate Release
November 5, 2021
Media Contact
Erik Villalobos, [email protected]
TPS Alliance Continues to Call on more Hispanic Caucus Members to be Champions for Immigrant Community
See Petition calling for more action from members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
(Los Angeles) Last Month, the National TPS Alliance launched a series of events to promote a petition calling on members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to follow in the footsteps steps of Representatives Chuy Garcia, Lou Correa, and Adriano Espaillat, all of whom are also members of the Caucus but are the only representatives to have stated publicly that they will not support any final reconciliation deal which excludes immigrant legalization. (Representative Jimmy Gomez gestured at such a position, but has not made his position clear) Yesterday, the strength of these three members was on display as delicate negotiations went late into the evening with quite literally life and death consequences for millions of immigrants.
As legislation takes shape in the House, Veronica Lagunas released the following statement on behalf of the National TPS Alliance:
“Now more than ever, we need more members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to lock arms with Chuy Garcia, Lou Correa, Adriano Espaillat, to ensure an advancement for immigrant rights in the unique legislative opportunity posed by the infrastructure and reconciliation deals.
“We call upon every member of the Hispanic Caucus- in the House and the Senate- to make clear they are in full solidarity with the demand for immigrant legalization in the infrastructure deal.
“The reality is that we would have been able to achieve greater protections for more people under this process if more members in Congress showed more leadership earlier on. The silence from some Hispanic Caucus members about their bottom line and their unwillingness to demonstrate that they will fight for immigrant families has caused confusion, demobilization, and division among their base.
“But we are where we are now, and there is still time for members to redeem themselves. Going forward, we need every single Democrat to prioritize equal rights for immigrants. At the very least, that means the members of the Hispanic Caucus must get solidly behind the champions who are holding the line for us and fighting like hell to keep us from being left behind.”
###
The National TPS Alliance is a grassroots immigrant rights organization of over 50 committees nationwide, advocating for the permanent residency of more than 400,000 beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
https://www.facebook.com/TPSAlliance
https://www.nationaltpsalliance.org/