IV 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 64 Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Roadmap to Freedom in order to overhaul the outdated immigration system in the United States that has gone without signifi- cant reform for decades, and to relieve the great human impact an unjust system bears on communities around the country. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 28, 2021 Ms. JAYAPAL (for herself, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. ESCOBAR, Ms. OCASIO- CORTEZ, Ms. CHU, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. BUSH, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HAS- TINGS, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. JONES, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. MENG, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OMAR, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. PA- NETTA, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. POCAN, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, and Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN) sub- mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, Homeland Security, and Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi- sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned RESOLUTION Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Roadmap to Freedom in order to overhaul the outdated immigration system in the United States that has gone without significant re- form for decades, and to relieve the great human impact VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 64 IH an unjust system bears on communities around the coun- try. Whereas our strength as a country has always been greater when we welcome newcomers; Whereas today the United States is an economic and innova- tion powerhouse due to the labor and lands of Indigenous peoples to which the United States has continuing trust and treaty responsibilities, the labor of enslaved people and their descendants, and generations of immigrants from every corner of the globe; Whereas immigrants and their families are a vital part of every community across the country; Whereas creating a fair immigration process that upholds our values and honors the courage and tenacity of people who have moved to pursue a better life, upholds our foundational commitment to liberty and justice for all; Whereas the majority of Americans support modernizing our Nation’s immigration laws and keeping families together; Whereas the United States is home to an estimated 10.5 mil- lion undocumented immigrants and stateless individuals, approximately 16 million people living in mixed-status families, and at least 5.1 million children with an un- documented parent; Whereas an estimated 19.8 million people who have immi- grated to the United States support American families by providing health care, food, and other essential services during the COVID–19 pandemic, yet many—including mixed-status families—are excluded from almost all Fed- eral pandemic relief, including access to testing, treat- ment, and food and financial assistance; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 64 IH Whereas these 19.8 million people are projected to continue playing a critical role in American life and work, and need a safe and fair immigration process; Whereas creating a fair and humane immigration system will help level the playing field for all working people and en- sure that employers cannot take advantage of an out- dated system to undermine worker voice and protections; Whereas people, businesses, and communities suffer due to an immigration system that is plagued by backlogs, proc- essing delays, and overly complex policies that are ineffi- cient, harmful, and widen the existing inequities in the system; Whereas immigrants—regardless of status—contribute bil- lions every year in taxes, yet many have virtually no ac- cess to safety net programs that are vital to ensuring that all communities thrive; Whereas all of us are harmed when our outdated and biased immigration system does not respond to the needs of the United States; Whereas today’s main immigration enforcement agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed after the September 11, 2001, attacks and reshaped im- migration as a national security issue, and minimized im- migration as an issue of humanitarian protection, family unity, and economic necessity—the effects of which have permeated immigration policies at all levels over the last nearly 20 years; Whereas the Trump Administration’s DHS has deployed agents and surveillance technology to suppress the con- stitutionally protected First Amendment rights of citizens and noncitizens alike across the country; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 64 IH Whereas our outdated immigration laws and rampant immi- gration enforcement has disproportionately impacted low- income people, people of color, and Black, Latinx, Mus- lim and Arab, Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants, im- migrants from Indigenous communities and their fami- lies, and borderland communities and these people have suffered gravely under policies that prioritize detention and deportation as a means of deterrence, including— (1) the separation of hundreds of thousands of fami- lies resulting from implementation of the Trump adminis- tration’s ‘‘Zero Tolerance’’ policy in addition to deporting tens of thousands of parents away from U.S. citizen chil- dren annually, and families separated by lengthy proc- essing backlogs and bans on people from Muslim-majority and African countries who have loved ones and family members in the United States; (2) over a million recipients of either Deferred Ac- tion for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Pro- tected Status (TPS) who have had their status taken away, bans on people from Muslim-majority and African countries, and the decimation of the asylum and refugee resettlement systems; (3) deplorable conditions in the custody of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including prolonged detention, rampant use of solitary confinement, crowded cells, rotten food, phys- ical abuse, sexual abuse, medical abuse, and forced med- ical procedures of detained women, including some result- ing in sterilization; and (4) dozens of preventable deaths in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, including deaths of children, due to medical neglect and suicide; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 64 IH Whereas Black immigrants excel in all sectors of society, yet are disproportionately targeted by incarceration and de- portation in which they experience abuse, longer periods of detention, and make up more than 20 percent of those facing deportation, despite making up approximately seven percent of the noncitizen population; Whereas Muslim immigrants contribute greatly to their com- munities, yet have been disparately subjected to bans, visa denials and denaturalization efforts based on their religion and national origin, and the targets of racial and religious profiling, discrimination, bigotry, and hate crimes; Whereas Asian immigrants are the fastest growing immigrant population yet are harmed by lengthy backlogs that keep families apart and prevent them from becoming U.S. citi- zens, and Southeast Asian immigrants are the largest refugee community in the United States, yet are three times more likely to be deported based on an old criminal conviction; Whereas indigenous immigrants have come to the United States fleeing persecution in great numbers in recent years yet have been subject to prolonged detention and forcibly returned to the countries they fled due to lan- guage barriers and a lack of adequate interpretation in their native languages; Whereas Latinx immigrants represent the largest immigrant community in the United States yet are frequently scapegoated, criminalized, and racially profiled leading to discrimination, hate crimes, and targeting for detention and deportation due to collaboration between local law enforcement and Federal immigration authorities; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HRES 64 IH Whereas migration can increase a woman’s access to edu- cation, economic independence, and autonomy, yet mi- grant women’s work is not valued in the immigration sys- tem and women are at a greater risk of exploitation, traf- ficking, and abuse; Whereas the Federal Government unnecessarily spends $8.43 million per day on immigrant detention at an average daily cost of $208 per detained immigrant, when those same people should be able to pursue their immigration case in communities, and cost-effective humane commu- nity-based case management programs exist when need- ed; Whereas the main drivers of the global displacement of peo- ple include violence, food insecurity, extreme poverty, mass wealth inequality, the effects of climate change, en- demic corruption, unfair judicial systems, harm done by multi-national corporations and mass consumption of re- sources, and U.S. foreign policy and military intervention leading to decades of destabilization; Whereas our post-World War II commitment to provide ac- cess to protection to people seeking safety in the United States has been almost completely dismantled under the Trump Administration; Whereas the politicization of the Immigration Court system has interfered with the efficient and fair operations of the Immigration Courts and resulted in due process viola- tions; Whereas immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual as- sault, and human and labor trafficking are vulnerable to ongoing abuse and exploitation for extended periods of time while their harm-doers are able to leverage the im- VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HRES 64 IH migration system as a tool of fear, exploitation, and prof- it making; Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic deepened the injustices of the immigration system resulting in a tremendous spread of COVID–19 in detention, deaths of multiple persons in detention due to COVID–19, and mass expulsions of un- accompanied children and asylum seekers at the border; and Whereas a fair and equitable immigration process that cen- ters on family unity and humanitarian protection, and that works for all, is necessary to eliminate these sys- temic injustices: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep- 1 resentatives that— 2 (1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to 3 develop and implement a Roadmap to Freedom by— 4 (A) promoting full citizenship by creating 5 an equitable roadmap that fosters and nurtures 6 full citizenship, and investing in resources to 7 clear the backlogged citizenship process; 8 (B) protecting and strengthening a fair 9 process centered on family unity by— 10 (i) eliminating barriers to family re- 11 unification; 12 (ii) preserving and strengthening fam- 13 ily based immigration; 14 (iii) creating a just and accessible 15 process for eligible individuals who are de- 16 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HRES 64 IH ported, detained, or in sanctuary to reunite 1 with their families and communities, and 2 return home in the United States; 3 (C) promoting and preserving diversity by 4 encouraging immigration from underrep- 5 resented countries; establishing opportunities 6 for individuals who otherwise would not have an 7 opportunity to migrate through existing family, 8 humanitarian, or employment-based channels; 9 and fostering new connections, unique perspec- 10 tives, and diversity within the United States 11 through upholding and enhancing the diversity 12 visa program; 13 (D) establishing a just, humane system to 14 uphold U.S. immigration laws by— 15 (i) ensuring fairness and disentan- 16 gling the criminal and deportation systems 17 such that the enforcement of immigration 18 laws will not rely upon detention and de- 19 portation by— 20 (I) creating scalable civil con- 21 sequences to immigration violations; 22 (II) repealing harmful provisions 23 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 24 Immigrant Responsibility Act 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HRES 64 IH (IIRIRA) and the Antiterrorism and 1 Effective Death Penalty Act 2 (AEDPA); 3 (III) decriminalizing the acts of 4 migration and seeking asylum; 5 (IV) ending the 287(g) program 6 and other programs that enable local 7 law enforcement to enforce immigra- 8 tion laws or require or incentivize co- 9 operation and support for Federal im- 10 migration enforcement; and 11 (V) ending the disproportionate 12 immigration penalties that flow from 13 involvement in the criminal legal sys- 14 tem, in particular on immigrants of 15 color; 16 (ii) ensuring that no person is re- 17 moved, expelled, or denied admission with- 18 out guaranteed and meaningful access to 19 legal defense; 20 (iii) mandating that all enforcement 21 actions must comply with the Fourth 22 Amendment, basic principles of fairness 23 and due process, uphold civil rights and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:01 Feb 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR64.IH HR64 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HRES 64 IH civil liberties, and include robust privacy 1 protections; 2 (iv) respecting the safety and security 3 of all people during encounters with law 4 enforcement by upholding the longstanding 5 division between State and local law en- 6 forcement and Federal immigration en- 7 forcement and enacting policies to build 8 trust and eliminate racial and religious 9 profiling by all Federal, State and local 10 law enforcement agencies in the United 11 States; 12 (v) protecting the safety of immigrant 13 communities by prohibiting immigration 14 enforcement at sensitive locati [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]