Adriano Espaillat: “As vice chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I will highlight some of the ongoing work my colleagues and I from…”

“As vice chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I will highlight some of the ongoing work my colleagues and I from the CHC's Working Group on Migrant Families are doing. Last month, in anticipation of the elimination of title 42, a Trump- era measure, our working group sat to work and develop recommendations that were subsequently submitted to Secretary Mayorkas outlining the CHC's proposal to protect the values of our Nation. These include the rights of immigrants, asylum seekers, the rights of families to enter our country and make their case before government as they flee political violence, as they flee gang violence, as they flee food insecurity, as they flee environmental crises that forces, perhaps, a mom to take her three children and walk for thousands of miles to our border. Mr. Speaker, immigration is not a matter that is exclusive to the United States of America; it is a worldwide matter. Mothers and families across the planet are often forced because of violence, because of war, because of environmental crisis, and because of food insecurity to seek a better life for them and their children. We submitted a series of recommendations to Secretary Mayorkas, among them was not to resort back to the family detention model that was perpetrated during the Trump administration. This model we know, and experts feel, scars children, some of them for life.…”