Booker Urges President to End Immigration Raids

NEWARK — U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, announced he joined 22 of his Senate Democratic colleagues in sending a letter to President Obama urging an immediate end to the Department of Homeland Security’s recently announced immigration raids program. Announced on Christmas Eve of last year, the nationwide operations have already targeted the homes of over one hundred Central American families who arrived to the United States last year fleeing the region’s violence.
“While we are a nation of laws that must be enforced, targeting children and women for deportation is wrong,” said Sen. Booker. “The Administration should designate Guatemala for Temporary Protected Status and continue to offer protection to Nationals of the Northern Triangle. As a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, I will continue to urge DHS and ICE to use limited enforcement resources on removing felons – not families.”
After the Board of Immigration Appeals granted temporary reprieve from deportation to numerous individuals swept up in raids who had not exhausted their legal options, the senators express concern over the decision to fast track the removal of children and women who may not have been afforded meaningful due process or lacked appropriate legal representation as they sought international refugee protection in the United States.
The senators are critical of the Administrations enforcement actions stating, “Targeting families contradicts the administration’s repeated commitment to focus its enforcement resources on removing felons not families.” Additionally, the senators recommend designating Guatemala and re-designating El Salvador and Honduras for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and also urge this humanitarian situation be addressed “in a manner consistent with our values of protection and due process.”
Senators who signed the letter in addition to Senator Booker were Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.); Richard Durbin (D-Ill.); Patty Murray (D-Wash.); Cory Booker (D-N.J.); Mazie Hirono (D-HI); Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.); Al Franken (D-Minn.); Bob Menendez (D-NJ); Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.); Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Ed Markey (D-Mass.); Brian Schatz (D-HI); Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.); Richard Blumenthal (D-CT); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.); Ben Cardin (D-Md.); Tim Kaine (D-Va.); Gary Peters (D-Mich.); Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.); Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).