Last week, I traveled to Richmond, VA, to meet with President Joe Biden and urged him to work with Congress to build a path to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS Holders, farmworkers, and essential workers.
During our brief exchange, the President paused to listen about how the DACA program had impacted my life and unlocked new opportunities for my brothers and me. I also told the President how grateful my parents were for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans — a program that will allow them to work, drive and live free from the fear of deportation.
President Biden looked at me in the eye, placed his hand on my shoulder, and said the same thing he has always said about immigration on reconciliation. "We are going to get it done. As long as I am President, I am on your side."
There has been a lot of speculation by reporters and onlookers as to whether the White House and more importantly President Biden and Vice-President Harris, have been using meetings with DACA recipients as simple “photo ops” or political “posturing.”
However, as a veteran of the immigrant movement, who has seen efforts to overhaul our nation's immigration laws go up flames one too many times, I am here to tell you that I believe in the President’s efforts to deliver a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants.
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If you read carefully enough, you can see the President has been consistent in his message about including a path to citizenship as part of the upcoming reconciliation package.
Not surprisingly, President Biden told reporters the same thing this past Thursday after meeting with various Democratic Senators and House Members:
Is the President guaranteeing immigration will be on reconciliation? No. But Biden’s constant statements of support may as well be a big Twitter DM to every Democratic Senator regarding how important immigration is to his Administration.
Driving up the urgency for Congress to deliver a path to citizenship is the current situation many DACA recipients like myself are currently facing.
Two weeks ago, a federal judge in Texas shut the door in the face of young immigrants who were hoping to enroll in the DACA protections for the first time. Judge Hanen’s order has effectively put the DACA program back in life support, threatening not just to keep first-time applications from being processed but also potentially canceling DACA in its entirety.
Republicans and their allies have sustained their consistent attacks on the DACA program for the past number of years, and this time they might succeed (let's be honest, the Supreme Court is unlikely to save DACA) unless Congress delivers a path to citizenship in the upcoming reconciliation package.
You have every right to roll your eyes at my wild optimism about getting immigration done this year. But hear me out. If I, an undocumented immigrant shielded from deportation by DACA, who had to endure the hellscape unleashed by Donald Trump the past 4 years, can believe that we can actually win on immigration has renewed hope, then why shouldn’t you?
President Biden and the White House are doing their part. It will be up to us to ensure every Democrat in the Senate holds the line, include a path to citizenship in reconciliation, and get this issue resolved for me, my family, and millions of undocumented immigrants across the country once and for all.
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