Issue Position: Immigration

Issue Position

During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks threatened to hang my great-grandfather from the tree in their front yard, so he took his pregnant wife and daughter and escaped on a fishing boat in the middle of the night. My grandmother's brother was born on that boat, and they immigrated to New York as refugees through Ellis Island. My grandmother started school in Manhattan without a word of English.

My grandfather also escaped the revolution, leaving his family in Russia, immigrating to Boston with just 17 cents in his pocket. My grandparents eventually settled on Long Island to raise their family. My grandmother opened a small wool and yarn business, and my grandfather became an engineer who helped build the first lunar module to land on the moon.

Because they had the opportunity to build their American dream, I'm now raising my children on Long Island in the house they bought almost 80 years ago. It's incredible and I'm truly grateful to be able to pass that legacy on to my kids, but for too many just now starting their American dream this isn't an option. Discriminatory immigration laws, rising home prices, and underfunded public schools have stacked the deck against working people in America.

President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) allowed more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants, often referred to as Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. as children, to come out of the shadows without fear of deportation. DACA allowed these immigrants to legally contribute to our economy. Dreamers pay approximately $2 billion each year in state and local taxes and help fund the retirements of millions of Americans. They contribute to Social Security, yet aren't eligible to take any of the benefits. Dreamers own homes and have launched businesses that employ native-born American citizens. Ending DACA and deporting Dreamers will cost taxpayers $60 billion, and will reduce economic growth by $280 billion over the next 10 years.

I support the DREAM Act of 2017 -- a clean DREAM Act that does not use immigrant youth as bargaining chips. There are 1,900 DACA recipients in NY02, and we must work to ensure that these children who only know America as their home get to continue to help make our country prosper.

I also support extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which grants legal permission to live and work in the United States to people from designated countries, due to conditions in the country that temporarily prevent them from safely returning. The layoff of the employed TPS population from Haiti, El Salvador, and Honduras would result in nearly $1 billion in turnover costs for employers forced to replace these employees. NY02 is home to 7,100 Central American TPS holders. Without the ability to legally work, TPS recipients would default on their mortgages, and Long Island would face an even great zombie-home epidemic. TPS holders are our neighbors, our co-workers, local small business owners, and fellow parishioners. They work hard, own homes, and are long-time residents of this country with citizen spouses and children.

There is no doubt that Congress must pass comprehensive immigration reform, however, our current administration has been vilifying immigrants and refugees, while ignoring how they help strengthen our communities. We can and must build a fair pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the United States, who are contributing to our economy.

We can and must embrace our tradition as a nation of immigrants, while also ensuring that we have a secure, modern and efficient border.

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