Undocumented immigrant group Cosecha calls for permanent protection for all 11 million undocumented immigrants, not only those who would be eligible under the Dream and Promise Act, and plans for May 1 mobilization in D.C.
Nationwide — Following the news of the passage of the Dream and Promise Act today in the U.S. House of Representatives, undocumented immigrant group Movimiento Cosecha released the following statement:
The House has just passed the Dream and Promise Act, which if signed into law would finally create a pathway to citizenship for approximately 2.5 million DACA, TPS, and DED recipients. However, the current bill also contains strict “criminal bars” that exclude and put at risk of deportation thousands of Dreamers and otherwise eligible immigrants. These criminal bars ignore the racist, inhumane reality of a criminal “justice” system that targets immigrant workers for simply trying to live our lives. We reject these exclusions and believe we all deserve protection, dignity, and respect.
Movimiento Cosecha represents undocumented workers and families across the country and many of us feel mixed emotions about this news. Should we be relieved that some of us, after decades, might finally receive some protection—or saddened that it could come at the expense of our parents, our loved ones, our community members? We must be clear: this dilemma is a false choice forced upon us by the Democratic Party. We deserve better than this division, and we deserve better than the Dream and Promise Act.
For so long, Democrats have sought to divide us into Dreamers and parents, “good” and “bad”, “essential” and non-essential. Though Joe Biden previously promised a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants, the Democrats have now chosen to abandon such legislation and rhetoric and focus on their same-old strategy of protection for some in exchange for criminalization and deportation for the rest. The Democratic Party may say that is the only realistic strategy for passing legislation, but really it reveals they do not have the interest or the courage to truly step up and fight for our entire community.
At the end of the day, the Democratic Party does not define what the immigrant community deserves—we do. Undocumented immigrant workers and families, who have led this fight for decades under both Democratic and Republican administrations, must continue to demand what we need to lead safe and dignified lives in a country where we have lived and worked for years—a country that depends and profits off of our labor, but subjects us to the ongoing terror of workplace exploitation, incarceration, detention, and deportation.
That is why Movimiento Cosecha has announced a deadline of Biden’s First 100 Days to deliver on permanent protection for all 11 million undocumented immigrant. Our community plans to mobilize in D.C. on May 1 to make clear to the president and the Democratic Party that we will not settle for empty promises and mere crumbs.
Movimiento Cosecha is a national movement fighting for permanent protection, dignity and respect for all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
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