United Farm Workers Foundation Executive Director Diana Tellefson Torres, who is also a member of the UFW National Executive Board, issued this statement following release of immigration changes outlined by Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s senior policy advisor, and contained a bill just introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA):
Senior White House policy advisory Stephen Miller and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte just released virulently anti-immigrant proposals that utterly sabotage promises of relief for Dreamers made yesterday by President Trump from the Cabinet Room that were carried on national television.
The White House plan being drafted by Miller—including draconian cuts in legal immigration—and Goodlatte’s nightmare bill for immigration enforcement are partisan reactions intended to obstruct any chance of a bipartisan solution that would offer relief to nearly 700,000 DACA recipients whose lives were thrown into chaos when the Trump administration ended DACA on Sept. 5.
How can Donald Trump pledge to work for a bipartisan solution for the Dreamers in front of TV cameras at the White House one day and the very next day see his senior policy advisor and his party’s Republican leadership in the House demolish prospects for such a deal?
Meanwhile, we welcome the decision from Northern California U.S. District Judge William Alsup in temporarily halting the Trump administration’s termination of the DACA program last September. While it is a victory, the ruling is only temporary and Congress must still act to pass a permanent bipartisan solution by January 19. Prospects for that bipartisan agreement were made much more bleak by the Miller-Goodlatte proposals.
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