Working people and supporters of immigrants celebrated Tuesday when Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced the Dream and Promise Act (H.R.6), which would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of Dreamers and people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
“Today is a significant step in keeping our promise to immigrant brothers and sisters who have contributed to communities across California and the United States, and devoted their livelihoods to making our schools, workplaces and neighborhoods stronger and better places for all of us,” said Josemelli Ruiz, a DACA recipient and community leader with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.
32BJ SEIU President Héctor Figueroa said in a statement that the DREAM and Promise Act “would mark the first major legislative strike against the Trump administration’s xenophobic politics of hatred and fear…”
During the bill introduction, 32BJ SEIU member and TPS holder Hever Gálvez shared with what the bill would mean for his family.
“I’ve been here for 20 years, always working hard & paying taxes just like anybody else. My son is 14 years old, he needs me, I need him and we both deserve to stay here,” said Gálvez, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador.
32BJ SEIU member Ana Argueta told NBC News: “I ask lawmakers to please keep us in their conscience, and that they give us immigration reform. It is time. We deserve it. We’ve been contributing for a long time and we’ve been paying our taxes like everybody else.”
SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry expressed why this legislation is so important. “America should be a country where all working people--no matter where we are from or what we look like--can live in dignity, raise our kids to do better than we did and not have to work for poverty wages until the day we die…Congress needs to pass the Dream and Promise Act of 2019 to fulfill that vision of our nation, the one that leads so many people to come here in search of safety and a better life.”
