Hispanic Caucus: DACA Not Enough, Need Amnesty for All

Illegal migrants, recipients in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and those who have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) joined the House Hispanic Caucus at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday for another push to codify amnesty for millions of people through “immigration reform” legislation.

House Democrats have introduced legislation that would provide deportation protection and a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, those with TPS, and those with Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), which gives immigrants from Liberia legal status.

“The story of America is grabbing amazing people from all over the world, bringing them to this country, and making them amazing Americans,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said at the press conference.

“Being an American should never be temporary,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) said. “We need to make sure that we give them permanent protection, and that it is a pathway to American citizenship.”

“Not just for them, but the entire family,” Garcia said.

Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) said there are some 34,000 DACA recipients in his state and 800,000 who have “mixed” immigration status.

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) said she represents El Paso, “the safe and secure U.S.-Mexico border.”

But not long after Escobar and other Democrats pushed for amnesty for millions of people already in the country — many illegally — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said at a House Homeland Security hearing that roughly 900,000 migrants will be registered crossing the border this year.

“We are on track for this year, for 900,000 apprehensions at the border,” she told the House’s Committee on Homeland Security, one day after officials revealed that 76,000 migrants flooded across the border in February 2019.

The nation’s border defense system “is clearly breaking,” Nielsen said.

Those 900,000 apprehensions do not include people who are not detected crossing the border illegally.

“Democrats said that bundling the three immigration programs together, instead of pushing for their passage separately, gives them the best chance to pass something and also puts the lesser-known TPS and DED statuses in the same legislation as the more widely known DACA program,” the Miami Herald reported.

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