Prominent Organizations on Radical & Callous Yoho Bill: Stop Separating Our Families
Speaker Boehner and his dysfunctional, obstructive and distractedGOP Conference earlier today passed the radical and callous “Yoho Bill” designed to deport our nation’s undocumented immigrants, deliberately ignoring calls from pro-immigrant groups to abandon their obstruction:
From United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
…the proposed bill could have unintended consequences by unreasonably limiting the ability of this and future Administrations to enforce immigration law efficiently and to ensure public safety. …
[The President’s executive actions] would prevent the separation of families, ensuring that U.S. citizens and permanent residents are not faced with losing their parents or being forced to return with them to a country in which they have never lived. Instead of traumatizing these children and young adults – the future leaders of this country – we should invest in them by ensuring that their families remain intact.
Rather than attempting to rescind the Administration’s recent executive actions on immigration, I ask the U.S. House of Representatives to act on a comprehensive and permanent solution to our immigration challenges by passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation that addresses all aspects of our immigration system…Our nation has waited too long for Congress to act on this important national issue.
From First Focus Campaign for Children:
The bill would not only prevent the President from moving forward with recently announced programs that would protect immigrant youth and families from deportation, but it could put other vulnerable individuals at risk of deportation, such as relatives of military personnel and trafficking victims…
…we believe HR 5759 is a reckless proposal that undermines our American values and does nothing to fix our immigration system. Rather than attempt to block the recent Executive immigration actions and maintain a status quo that harms children, we urge the House of Representatives to advance immigration reform that would provide a permanent solution for immigrant children and families.
From AFL-CIO:
The AFL-CIO urges you to vote against the “Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014” (H.R. 5759), which would strip away protections from the millions of working families who will benefit from the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that were announced by President Obama on November 20…. In the sixteen months since a bipartisan majority of the Senate passed S. 744, Republican Leadership has failed to schedule a vote or move any comprehensive immigration reform bill, like H.R. 15, through any House committee. This failure to act, combined with increased enforcement efforts, has created a crisis in our nation’s immigrant communities and in workplaces across the country. Rather than providing a solution, the Republican Leadership is advancing a bill that will deny millions of aspiring Americans the opportunity to live and work without fear.
From SEIU:
…This ill-considered and poorly drafted bill appears to be intended to eliminate the President’s discretion to set rational immigration enforcement priorities or protect immigrants from deportation no matter how long they have been here, what ties they have established, and how much hardship their removal would inflict.
It is tragic that the House now may find the time to vote on H.R. 5759, which is intended to prevent the President from making critical but partial improvements, while continuing to obstruct bipartisan legislation that holds the promise of making the more comprehensive changes that our nation desperately needs. SEIU urges you to vote no…
From United Farm Workers:
After Congress failed to pass meaningful immigration legislation, they are now focusing their efforts on trying to sabotage the President’s actions, which would protect hard-working immigrant families. With this vote, Republicans have proclaimed once again that they do not value immigrant contributions that move this country forward.
From National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition of 39 of the nation’s preeminent Latino organizations:
…strongly opposes H.R. 5759, the Executive Amnesty Prevention Act of 2014, and any similar legislation that seeks to repeal President Barack Obama’s recent administrative action to provide relief from deportation to parents of U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident children and would expand eligibility for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
H.R. 5759 and similar legislation plays politics with real people’s lives and would perpetuate a policy of deportation that has needlessly torn apart too many families, instills fear, and holds back individuals from fully contributing to the social and economic life of the nation.
From America’s Voice:
Today is a historic day, and a sad day. With this vote on this bill today, the Republican Party cements its reputation as the party of mass deportation. Instead of allowing a vote on a comprehensive approach to immigration reform that would modernize our dysfunctional immigration system, enhance orderliness and put 11 million immigrant on a path to permanent residence, House Republicans are making it clear their policy alternative is to subject as many undocumented immigrants as possible to deportation.
From LULAC:
The League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization, urges you to oppose H.R. 5759, a symbolic bill whose main message appears to be that Latino immigrants are not valued by this Congress…. Why any member of Congress would support such a measure cannot be explained from a rational policy perspective.
From National Immigration Law Center:
This bill would deny 4 million parents of U.S. citizens an opportunity to seek temporary protection from deportation and obtain work authorization. It would also undercut existing mechanisms to provide relief to victims of serious crimes and domestic violence survivors.
From National Immigration Forum:
Immigration should be about people, not politics. H.R. 5759 is a step in the wrong direction that only further divides Congress instead of uniting both parties around the need to fix our broken immigration system…
From Asian Americans Advancing Justice:
The U.S. House of Representatives should reject a bill that aims to prevent the president’s executive action on immigration from taking effect. Instead, our lawmakers should pass a bill to permanently fix our nation’s broken immigration system. H.R. 5759, the “Executive Amnesty Prevention Act,” comes on the heels of two congressional hearings this week, threats of a government shutdown and other outlandish rhetoric attacking the relief granted in mid-November to nearly 5 million immigrants, of which half a million are Asian immigrants.
From National Immigrant Justice Center:
Attempts to strip the executive branch of authority to defer the removal of certain noncitizens places individuals and communities at greater risk of harm. One such effort, H.R. 5759, is grossly overbroad and if passed, would sweep into its wide net many vulnerable individuals in compelling circumstances who rely on protection from removal for their safety and well-being.
From The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights:
Nearly a year and a half after the Senate passed a sweeping, bipartisan immigration reform compromise, we are profoundly disappointed that the most the House can do is vote to keep the current dysfunctional system in place. The bill the House is taking up today, the ‘Executive Amnesty Prevention Act,’ is nothing more than a symbolic attack on the common-sense policies recently announced by President Obama to restore balance to our immigration enforcement policies.
Rep. Yoho’s bill is yet another example of House Republicans playing politics instead of working to find a solution to a national problem. House members of good conscience should vote against it.
From Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS):
…the national organization established by Lutheran Churches in America to serve uprooted people, opposes the “Executive Amnesty Prevention Act” (H.R. 5759). This legislation, intended to prevent the President from implementing executive actions on immigration matters, would have devastating unintended consequences on millions of families, as well as other vulnerable individuals fleeing violence and persecution…
Rather than trying to obstruct the President’s actions, Congress should work to enact compassionate and just immigration reforms.
From National Education Association:
We urge Congress to pass a comprehensive bill, such as H.R. 15, that creates a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million aspiring Americans; continues to preserve the unity of family; and includes the DREAM Act and DACA…Again, we urge you to VOTE NO on H.R. 5759. As educators, we welcome aspiring Americans in our classrooms and schools every day.
From American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME):
The House of Representatives has had 524 days to act since the Senate passed its bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislations…Instead, the House majority leadership has stubbornly refused to hold a floor vote on the Senate bill or any House comprehensive immigration bill. Now, it is holding a symbolic, meaningless vote on H.R. 5759 solely to allow GOP House members to vent their opposition to the steps President Obama has taken within his legal authority to begin to fix our broken immigration system.
From American Federation of Teachers (AFT):
Congress should not support legislation that attempts to block President Obama’s executive action… H.R. 5759 does nothing to fix our immigration system. A better course of action would be passing the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill.
From National Task Force to end Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women:
The Steering Committee of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (“NTF”), comprised of national leadership organizations advocating on behalf of sexual and domestic violence victims and women’s rights, writes in opposition to Congressman Yoho’s amendment to H.R. 5759, which seriously limits Executive Branch authority to defer the removal of various classes of non-citizens. The amendment broadly sweeps large numbers of victims into its scope and ignores the best interests of victims and their children.
From National Council of Jewish Women:
President Obama’s executive action would take steps to improve the US immigration system while Congress works to come up with a long-term solution reflecting American values like fairness, justice, and success with hard work. It is up to us to speak out so that immigrants today and going forward have access to the same opportunities we have enjoyed.
From Church World Service:
Church World Service urges all members of the House of Representatives to reject proposals that would separate families, deport our community members and be a step backwards in addressing our broken immigration system. Recent legislation introduced by Representative Yoho (R-FL-3), H.R. 5759, the “Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014” would prevent the executive branch from meeting its constitutional duty to prioritize enforcement of U.S. immigration law and would result in the separation of millions of families.