WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Intolerance for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, released the following statement in response to the immigration proposal announced by President Trump Thursday.

“I fundamentally disagree with President Trump on his immigration policies, because I think he’s trying to restrict the ability of good people to come to this country. We all want highly skilled people in this country and we have done much to discourage that by our immigration policies. We should fix our immigration policies to deal with it.

“The extreme immigration plan that President Trump unveiled today is not a serious proposal. The Senate already overwhelmingly rejected a similar proposal by a 39-60 vote last year. The Trump plan would waste more money on a border wall with Mexico, make it harder for families to reunify, and turn away refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries. The President does not try to propose any solution to protect Dreamers and those with Temporary Protected Status and provide them with a pathway to citizenship, which is a crisis of the President’s own making. Instead, the President should work with Congress based on the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate in 2013 with a 68-vote margin, which would reform our broken immigration system. Democrats have introduced comprehensive legislation to address the root causes of migration from Central America, while improving our asylum system and combating human trafficking. 

“America’s strength is in our values and protecting people who are in danger has always been an American value. Congress should work to advance bipartisan immigration legislation with or without the President’s help.”

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