Demonstrators met outside the Dallas offices of Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz Friday afternoon, calling them to support a U.S. House resolution that would protect some people without legal status from deportation. House Resolution 2920 has passed out of the House Judiciary Committee.
HR 2920 would let the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice "exercise discretion by declining to remove an alien or bar an alien from entering the United States to prevent hardship for the alien's U.S. citizen spouse, parent, or child." Supporters say the measure would prevent people from being deported if they are unauthorized but a parent, child or spouse is a U.S. citizen.
"All we want is for our families to be able to be together in the country we know," says American Families United's Liza Dupont. "We have families who have exiled. We have families who have left the United States in order to be together."
Dupont says she is a U.S. citizen and has been married to a Mexican national ten years. She says they have two kids together.
"I don't understand why he can't be a legal resident of this country," she says. "It makes no sense to me. That's what this bill would do. This bill would give us a chance to plead our case. Currently, we have no due process."
"I want my wife back," one man, whose wife is in Mexico, said at the demonstration. "I've been separated from my wife four and a half years. I did all the proper channels. I did it the legal way."
Since Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996, the National Immigration Forum says 270,000 spouses of U.S. citizens have been deported. The organization says the U.S. has deported 87,351 parents of citizens.
HR 2920 has 78 cosponsors listed in the U.S. House, including three Republicans. Supporters say the measure has a Democratic sponsor in the Senate, but they want Cornyn or Cruz to sign on to give bipartisan support.
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