Explained: Immigration, Title 42, & AOC

You may
have heard a lot of talk about immigration recently. So what's going on?

Title 42 expired last week. Title 42 was a law used by the Trump
administration to quickly expel immigrants, under the pretense of the
COVID-19 pandemic. With Title 42 gone, immigration is likely to increase.

To address the expected influx at the border, President Biden announced
new immigration policies, including a transit ban that would ban migrants
for 5 years if they don’t first seek refugee status in the country they
are traveling through on their way to the U.S. Several of these policies
are based on the belief that if you make it deeply difficult for migrants
to come here, then they’ll stop.

Respectfully, we disagree. From a policy perspective, there’s not a lot of
evidence a deterrence-only strategy works (under Title 42 immigration
actually increased). Plus, our country needs to add to our workforce to
meet the labor demand. We need immigration.

Do you like receiving these policy explainers?

[ [link removed] ]YES

[ [link removed] ]NO

Alexandria is advocating for a different way. Last week, Alexandria led a
letter to President Biden asking him to shorten the waiting period for
asylum seekers to obtain work authorization permits.^1

Asylum seekers who have already arrived in the U.S. must currently wait at
least 6 months to work legally — with many waiting up to a full year. This
doesn’t make any sense. These migrants want to work, our country needs
their labor, and, when recently arrived migrants can’t work, it
overburdens nonprofits and local governments.

This type of compassionate immigration reform isn’t a niche idea — work
authorization reform has support across the ideological spectrum of the
Democratic Party, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

We at Team AOC believe seeking asylum is a human right. A compassionate
immigration system is necessary to make our country strong. We will keep
you updated on how this story progresses, and how Alexandria and Democrats
are responding.

In solidarity,

Team AOC

 

Alexandria and Team AOC are committed to making important, complex policy
issues accessible to everyone.

[ [link removed] ]To support our work, chip in here →

1 - [ [link removed] ]Axios: New York Dems push Biden to loosen job rules for asylum
seekers


 

This email was sent to [email protected]. Email is the most important way we keep in touch with people like you, so thank you for reading to the end. Small donors like you keep us going. To contribute via check, please address to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress, PO Box 680080, Corona, NY 11368.



You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]


PAID FOR BY ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ FOR CONGRESS