Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) opposed partisan legislation that would result in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of children seeking asylum and criminalize undocumented immigrants overnight.

DelBene called on House Judiciary Committee leadership to instead take bipartisan action on comprehensive immigration reform that would create jobs and grow the economy.

“Instead of working in a bipartisan manner, I'm incredibly disappointed that the Committee is considering hyper-partisan bills that would punish the most vulnerable populations – children and asylum seekers,” DelBene said. “These deportation-only measures are not solutions to our nation’s broken immigration system. We need meaningful immigration reform that has a real chance of becoming law.”

During the past three weeks, the House Judiciary Committee has considered numerous Republican measures that blindly oppose the president's executive actions on immigration with no regard for their merit or the people they affect.

DelBene offered two commonsense amendments that would have prevented economic harm to both the agriculture and technology industries, which have a major presence in Washington’s First District. Although some House Judiciary Republicans voiced support for her ideas, they still voted against her amendments, which failed on party-line votes.

On Wednesday, the Congresswoman offered an amendment to ensure U.S. companies remain competitive by allowing the spouses of high-skilled H-1B workers applying for green cards to work, as several other countries do.

Last week, she also offered an amendment that would have required the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Agriculture to certify that the current E-Verify system wouldn’t result in significant labor shortages before forcing farmers to comply.

Last Congress, DelBene introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act (H.R. 15), similar to the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill. If House leadership permitted a vote on that legislation, it likely would have passed.

Click HERE to see footage of DelBene at the House Judiciary Committee hearing.

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