WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after the White House released an immigration reform proposal in the midst of bipartisan Congressional negotiations on the same topic:

“The President of the United States created this crisis in September when he put an expiration date on the backs of Dreamers. By releasing such an extreme proposal now, with Congress deep into bipartisan negotiations, the president has made finding a viable solution to this crisis more difficult. Congress should ignore this latest Stephen Miller-led nationalistic volley from the White House and stay focused on the task at hand – protect the DREAMers, extend Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of people and consider permanent legal solutions, and enact common sense border security enhancements. Trading young people’s lives so the president can waste billions of taxpayer dollars on a futile wall and promoting anti-immigration policies will not make America safer.”

###