SE Kansas City News

(Washington, DC) – This week, U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II (MO-05), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), David Trone (MD-06), and Senator Cory Booker (NJ) led colleagues in a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging DHS to conduct a centralized and more streamlined process for reviewing petitions from individuals who were unjustly or wrongfully deported from the United States. In doing so, DHS would give these individuals a more meaningful chance to come home and reunite with their loved ones and communities.

“This is an issue that impacts every community throughout the country, and I am proud to co-lead this effort with my colleagues,” said Congressman Cleaver. “In Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, I have witnessed the impact these deportations have on family units and the entire community, and I can confidently say that justice for those who were wrongly deported and wish to reunite with their loved ones and their communities is paramount to the preservation of human and civil rights. I will continue fighting for DHS to create a new, centralized unit to review claims of wrongful deportation to give these individuals a better chance to reunite with their families and communities.”

“As members of Congress committed to a fair and just U.S. immigration system, we write to respectfully suggest that you take a much-needed step to offer persons who are unjustly deported from the United States a meaningful chance to come home and reunite with their loved ones and communities. Specifically, we ask you to consider using your authority as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary to establish a centralized unit within DHS that is dedicated to reviewing requests to return submitted by those who were subject to wrongful and/or unjust removals from the United States,” stated the Members.

“Our current immigration laws have important procedures that allow individuals to make their case for a return to the U.S. after their deportation—especially when U.S. laws change or when new evidence comes to light. As you know, these processes can include a deported person filing a petition for review, a motion to reopen their case, or even applying for lawful status while abroad after they have been deported. In practice, each of these mechanisms are ineffective and insufficient due to the current decentralized review process and the associated lengthy wait times. Instead, a single, central unit within DHS is urgently needed to ensure that people unjustly separated from their families and loved ones by deportation receive a meaningful review of their requests to return to the U.S. under the existing legal remedies afforded by Congress,” they continued.

“Accordingly, we encourage you to exercise your legal authority to establish this central unit to give the unjustly deported a meaningful chance to come home,” the Members concluded.

The congressional effort builds on the momentum created by the National Immigrant Justice Center’s “Chance to Come Home” movement, which sheds light on the traumatic experiences of individuals who have been torn from their families and unjustly deported from the United States.

“Current immigration law includes mechanisms intended to give unjustly deported people a chance to make a case for return to the United States, but in practice those mechanisms are ineffective & futile,” said Nayna Gupta, Associate Director of Policy and lawyer at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “A central process like the one championed in this letter would give people with decades of life in the U.S. who were torn from their loved ones & livelihoods by prior administrations at least a chance to come home. This is about making the law do what it was intended to do.”

Joining Reps. Cleaver, Espaillat, Trone and Senator Cory Booker in cosponsoring the letter were Reps. Alma Adams (NC-12), Nanette Barragán (C-44), Joyce Beatty (OH-03), Earl Blumenaur (OR-03), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Tony Cárdenas (CA-29), André Carson (IN-07), Greg Casar (TX-35), Kathy Castor (FL-14), Judy Chu (CA-28), Yvette Clark (NY-09), J. Correa (CA-46), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Jesús García (IL-04), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Al Green (TX-09), Raul Grijalva (AZ-07), Glenn Ivey (MD-04)), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Henry Johnson (GA-04), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Robin Kelly (IL-02), Barbara Lee (CA-12), James McGovern (MA-02), Grace Ming (NY-06), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Grace Napolitano (CA-31), Eleanor Norton (DC), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Donald Payne (NJ-10), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Mike Quigley (IL-05), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Janice Schakowsky (IL-09), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Norma Torres (CA-35), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Juan Vargas (CA-52), Nydia Velázque (NY-07), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Nikema Williams (GA-05), Frederica Wilson (FL-24), Senators Tammy Duckworth (IL), Mazie Hirono (HI), Edward J. Markey (MA), Robert Menendez (NJ), Patty Murray (WA), Alex Padilla (CA), Bernard Sanders (VT), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Ron Wyden (OR)

The official letter from the Members is available here.

Original source can be found here