BREAKING: Immigration Coalition Expresses Grave Concerns on Rounds Amendment

February 15th, 2018

Family Reunification Is The Bedrock of Stable Communities and Immigrant Integration


NEW YORK, NY – On late Wednesday night, U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-SD), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Angus King (I-ME), along with more than a dozen of other Senators, introduced a bipartisan immigration amendment that will be voted on today on the floor of the Senate.

In response to the Rounds amendment, the New York Immigration Coalition Executive Director, Steven Choi, issued the following statement:

“The NYIC remains committed to working with our New York Congressional representatives to find a permanent solution for DREAMers, and welcome the DREAM Act provisions included in the Rounds amendment. However, we are extremely troubled by a number of the far-reaching policy changes in the Rounds amendment, including changes to immigration enforcement priorities, elimination of family reunification categories, and the unnecessary $25 billion spent on border security. Keeping families whole is critical to immigrant integration and overall wellbeing. We will continue to demand from Congress a clean DREAM Act that doesn’t rip apart families in the process.”

The amendment would:

  • Include enforcement priorities that would handcuff immigration judges from considering all aspects of a person's circumstances and would virtually eliminate the use of prosecutorial discretion;
  • eliminate family reunification for LPRs to sponsor their adult children;
  • $25 billion in border provisions with little to no funding allocated for additional oversight and accountability for the nation's largest law enforcement agency;
  • punish the parents of DREAMers by making them ineligible to be sponsored by their children.

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