For Immediate Release

Press Contact: Kristian Ramos, KristianR@mifamiliavota.org

Washington D.C. – Following the release of a Senate Border deal, Héctor Sánchez Barba, the President and CEO of Mi Familia Vota (MFV), issued the following statement:

“Mi Familia Vota is an immigrant-led organization; our community knows exactly what is at stake on our southern border and in the nationwide fight for immigrants’ rights. We need solutions, both to help those who are looking for asylum and those looking for safe harbor in our country.

What the Senate is proposing is not a solution and in fact would make our immigration system much worse. It excludes Dreamers and a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country. This bill does not reform our broken immigration system; it is primarily a border enforcement bill limiting access to asylum.

It creates an unworkable and dangerous New Title 42-like Authority. This bill creates a new authority to easily shut down the border that can be invoked at any time that would block asylum for some vulnerable asylum seekers—a dangerous tool in the hands of future administrations. This bill also guts Asylum, limiting access to asylum by creating a heightened standard and setting up rapid processing at the cost of due process, harming the most vulnerable asylum seekers fleeing persecution.

Finally, this bill is a huge expansion of border enforcement designed to bypass immigration courts and expedite deportations, increase detention capacity, putting in place mass detention along the border along with an ICE slush fund for enforcement.

All of this would be troubling as is, but it is particularly outrageous given that there was not a single Latino Senator involved in the crafting of this legislation. We are confident that should a community member have been involved, they would not have released such a damaging piece of policy.

Our community needs help and solutions, and Mi Familia Vota will always hold politicians accountable for our community’s policy needs. We can and must do better for our immigrant familia. We will be organizing against this terrible piece of legislation.