NEA president: Republican leaders’ immigration bills are inhumane

WASHINGTON - NEA President Lily Eskelsen García issued the following statement responding to published reports about House Republican plans to move two immigration bills through Congress.

“Once again, House Republican leaders are standing in the way of what a majority of Americans and the Congress support: the Dream Act. Instead, they are putting forward two inhumane bills crafted from Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant playbook – as the world watches in shock while crying babies are maliciously separated from their parents.

“The legislation in question – the Ryan bill and Goodlatte bill – advance a hateful agenda of targeting immigrants and their families instead of doing what is right and necessary to provide certainty and protection to Dreamers and their families.

“The GOP leadership also wants to cut family migration, eliminate the diversity visa lottery and provide funds to build a wall that Americans have soundly rejected. We strongly oppose any legislation that compromises or scales back existing immigration laws or attempts to trade the future of Dreamers, and deny the promise made to them, for harmful provisions that will continue to hurt, marginalize and criminalize families and communities.

“Congress needs to stand for our American values and reject this hateful, misguided, and inhumane agenda.”