On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee began the markup process on H.R. 2820 (“Dream Act of 2019”), H.R. 2821 (“American Promise Act of 2019”), and H.R. 549 (“Venezuelan TPS Act of 2019”).
The first two bills would provide people who currently have DACA or TPS a pathway to citizenship if they meet certain requirements. The third would provide temporary protected status to Venezuelans, who have been forced to flee their homes due to political instability.
The House Judiciary Committee will be marking several bills, including: H.R. 2820, also known as the “Dream Act of 2019”; H.R. 2821, also known as the “American Promise Act of 2019”; and H.R. 549, also known as the ‘‘Venezuela TPS Act of 2019.’’ The measures, originally introduced by Congresswomen Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), respectively, provide a path for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and individuals who are in the country under temporary protected status (TPS) to earn citizenship status by meeting certain requirements.
“Today as the House begins the process of marking up these bills, we urge members to support the measures that would offer relief to so many immigrant families currently living in limbo. Families whose lives have been put on hold because they are unsure if they will lose their legal status from one day to the next. They’ve been placed in a position to wonder if they can pursue their dreams to further their education, or invest in getting a home for their families, not knowing if they or a loved one would be forced to leave the country at any given moment. We should be putting families in a position to succeed and flourish, not creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity,” said UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía.
As noted in a UnidosUS statement submitted for the Congressional record, nearly 500,000 American children are at risk of being separated from a parent if Congress fails to address the status of DACA and TPS recipients. This type of family separation causes irreparable harm to children’s development in the areas of health, education, and financial stability, according to a recently released UnidosUS report.
In addition, providing relief for these populations has wide support. The vast majority of Americans (83%) across the political spectrum support a permanent solution for DREAMers. DREAMers alone contribute $42 billion in annual GDP, and recent data estimate that TPS holders from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti contribute $4.5 billion in pre-tax wages to our country’s GDP.
“We are incredibly grateful to Congresswoman Roybal-Allard for her leadership and tenacity in authoring and shepherding this measure forward, and we urge the Congress to vote in favor of the bill that will allow thousands of families to pursue their American dream without a cloud of fear and uncertainty hanging over them,” Murguía said.