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Paul Ryan’s Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Family Immigration Bills

What should be clear by now is that immigrant communities remain the most vulnerable group in Trump’s America. From day one, the Trump Administration has systematically targeted immigrants and their families, aiming to jail or deport as many people as possible. From enabling ICE to terrorize immigrants and their families, to making it harder for people to claim asylum at the border, and now ripping babies away from their parents and detaining them, Trump is fulfilling the promises he made during his campaign—and congressional Republicans are enabling him.

Trump is now using his cruel family separation policy as leverage in an attempt to get Congress to pass extreme, anti-immigrant bills. And, unsurprisingly, Paul Ryan is complying. Ryan brings two bills to the floor that would NOT fix family separation, nor provide real relief for DACA recipients — both Trump-created problems. What they would do is radically change our immigration system, with immigrant families paying the price. Here’s what you need to know about the two bills.

The House just rejected the “Goodlatte” immigration bill, which would have torn families apart and militarized border communities, and delayed their vote on another bill from Paul Ryan until Fri. Ryan’s so-called “compromise” bill would detain families *indefinitely* and fund Trump’s border wall.

We need to keep the pressure up. Keep calling your members of Congress! Use this script to tell them to vote NO on Ryan’s immigration bill.

PAUL RYAN PROPOSAL

Paul Ryan and Republican leadership have negotiated an alternative to Goodlatte-McCaul,  and are hawking this proposal as a “compromise” between moderate Republicans and the Freedom Caucus. However, it’s far from a compromise in terms of substance: it’s merely a repackaging of Trump’s goal of radically reducing the number of brown and black immigrants to this country, and increasing the deportation of brown and black immigrants who are already here. While it does offer a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, the process involves a convoluted points system that may take as long as 20 years to get through. There is no guarantee that DACA-eligible immigrants will ever obtain status through this proposal, yet even this narrow path comes at a steep cost:

  • Mandatory and indefinite detention for immigrant children and their parents
  • Eliminates  the diversity visa program
  • Eliminates family-sponsored green cards for siblings and married adult children
  • Appropriates $23 billion dollars  towards border security, including wall construction and over 50,000 more immigration agents
  • Restricts access to asylum

Sound familiar? It has the same anti-immigrant provisions as the Goodlatte bill. Not much of a compromise.

MYTHBUSTING: THE PAUL RYAN PROPOSAL DOES NOT FIX THE FAMILY SEPARATION CRISIS

Republicans are misleading the American public by saying that the Paul Ryan proposal combats family separation and the unaccompanied minor crisis. This is a lie. The Paul Ryan proposal simply requires that children and parents must be in immigration detention together while they go through criminal proceedings; in a nutshell, Ryan wants to detain families together instead of detaining families separately. It also eliminates the current requirement that children be released after 20 days, meaning that they could be held in detention indefinitely—and ultimately separated if the parent is sent to jail.

Let’s be clear: jailing immigrant children with their parents is not the solution to ripping children away from their parents.

 

Call Rep Turner

(937) 225-2843 Dayton

(202) 225-6465 DC

 

Caller: Hi! My name is [name] and I’m calling from [part of state]. I’m calling today to tell [Representative] to vote NO on the Paul Ryan proposal. These bills are taking Dreamers hostage in exchange for dramatic spending on the wall and racist changes to our immigration system that prevent people from reuniting with their family members abroad. If [insert name here] supports immigrants, they will vote no.

Staffer: Thanks for calling. [Representative] wants to protect Dreamers, but [she / he] thinks it is important that we fix our broken immigration system and ensure that people are respecting and obeying our immigration laws. These bill will also end family separation at the border while also allowing the best and brightest to come and contribute our economy.

Caller: That is not true. This bill would stop family separations at the border. It would only make it worse and make it easier to deport parents and keep them from their kids. Dreamers cannot be a bargaining chip for Trump’s racist policies and border wall. If you care about Dreamers and immigrants, you must vote no on both of these proposals.

Staffer: I’ll pass along your thoughts to [Representative].

Caller: Please do, and please take down my contact information so you can let me know what [Representative] decides to do.