The following statement may be attributed to Héctor Figueroa, President of 32BJ SEIU: 

“As one of the nation’s largest unions representing immigrant workers, we enthusiastically welcome today’s introduction of a House bill that would finally provide relief for over a million DREAMers and recipients of TPS and DED. Most of these immigrants have been living here legally in the U.S. for years, if not decades, and the “Dream and Promise Act of 2019” would finally provide them a path to citizenship in the nation they call home.

“We also applaud the House leadership for moving this bill to the floor so quickly, to address the cruel and senseless mass deportation schemes of the Trump administration. Over the past two years, the administration has sought to end all legal protections for 800,000 DREAMers, as well as for the 400,000 immigrants from nations ravaged by natural disasters, persecution and violence who have been covered by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED).

“We still desperately need to fix our entire broken immigration system and provide a pathway to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented immigrants. But we cannot take that step forward until we stop these attempts to move backward by ending the legal status of so many of our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Passage of the “Dream and Promise Act of 2019” would mark the first major legislative strike against the Trump administration’s xenophobic politics of hatred and fear, and begin the restoration of a nation based on the dream of equality and the promise of justice for all.”

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With over 163,000 members in 11 states, including immigrants from around the world, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property services union in the country.