No More Posturing: President Biden and Congress Must Use Power of the Purse to Advance Immigrant Rights

In reaction to today’s hearing by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee on “Department of Homeland Security Resource Management and Operational Priorities” and testimony from Secretary Mayorkas, NDLON Campaign Director Salvador G Sarmiento issued the following statement:

“Today’s hearing further clarified what we all already know: The Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress must work together making use of budgetary tools to advance immigrant rights, and this will require far greater leadership from President Biden himself. Reconciliation must be used as a down payment to deliver the legalization immigrants deserve, and rogue agencies within DHS must be restrained by massive reduction in their budget and far greater oversight from the House Appropriations Committee. The decades-long bipartisan war on immigrants must end, and this will require honest, direct leadership— and not posturing— from President Biden.

“There can be no bipartisanship agreement with a Republican Party that brought the country to the brink of fascism and is currently disintegrating, held together only through the single common thread of immigrant-scapegoating. Democrats have the obligation and responsibility to end this shameful chapter of US history, and that will require that President Biden himself use more political capital.

“President Biden once quoted his father saying: ‘Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.’ The honeymoon is over. It is time for President Biden to demonstrate where he stands.”

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