Immigrants are an important part of communities in Washington state and around the country, making valuable contributions to both our heritage and our economy. But because of our country’s broken immigration system, men, women, and children are forced to live in the shadows as Americans in all but name. Families and businesses alike are trapped in a broken system, that isn’t working for anyone.
Senator Murray believes the way to fix our broken immigration system is to adopt comprehensive immigration reform legislation. In the 113th Congress, she supported a bipartisan bill in the Senate that would provide undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship, support our economy, and improve our national security. Unfortunately, the bipartisan bill never moved in the House, where Republican leaders refused to allow members to take a vote.
Senator Murray believes the only way to address the complex immigration problem – which affects millions of people—is through a comprehensive, bipartisan approach. She is committed to working with her colleagues in Congress to achieve a solution to this extremely important issue.
Sen. Murray is fighting for immigration policies that:
- Improve the legal immigration system to keep immigrant families together, protect workers, and provide employers – from agriculture producers to high-tech firms – certainty in a system that has often left them without answers
- Change implementation of our laws to make immigration and border enforcement humane, non-discriminatory, and respectful of due process
- Expand the already-successful implementation of deferred action for DREAMers, to include people with strong ties to the U.S. who have not committed serious crimes
- Ensure unaccompanied children receive legal representation in our immigration court system
What Sen. Murray has done to improve our immigration system:
- Supported bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the 113th Congress
- Worked to provide legal aid for unaccompanied youth, and fund additional immigration judges to help reduce case backlog
- Introduced legislation to help states offer in-state tuition for DREAMer students
- Supported Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and the expansion of DACA and the creation of Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), in November 2014 – and advocating for the Supreme Court to allow these important programs to move forward
- Cosponsored legislation to update U.S. immigration law to allow American citizens to sponsor same-sex “permanent partners” applying for legal residency
- Advocated for administrative changes for bi-national LGBT couples in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality
- Introduced bipartisan amendment to protect pregnant women detained by immigration officials from shackling and other unnecessary restraint
- Proposed an amendment to increase the ability of the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to provide effective oversight of DHS activities
If you need assistance in dealing with the immigration system, we can help.
