WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today after President Trump announced his immigration proposal:



“While we certainly need to have a conversation about reforming our immigration system to attract the full range of immigrants ready to contribute to growing our economy, President Trump’s proposal is based on a set of falsehoods aimed at only allowing immigrants from certain favored nations or backgrounds. This new proposal is a non-starter and another example of how this President continues to base his immigration policies on xenophobic and false stereotypes about immigrants from certain parts of the world. America is great because it has the capacity to welcome new immigrants and new ideas. If we close ourselves off from the world, shut ourselves in with walls and closed minds, we do so at our own peril and at the expense of the better future we forfeit.



“With this announcement, we also see this President’s continued disrespect for the principle of keeping families together. We saw it when he ended the DACA program, creating a crisis that this proposal ignores. We saw it with the horrific and inhumane family separation policy last year at the border, which tore crying children from their parents’ arms without any plan to reunite them. Now, we see this Administration attempting to prevent those already here from sponsoring their loved-ones for immigration, an exclusionary practice that does not comport with Americans’ values about families and community.



“I will continue working with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and other groups to push back against this President’s ill-conceived immigration policies born not from strategy and consensus but from malice and discrimination.”