Hirono, colleagues call on Biden to protect immigrant families ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Trump

US Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined six of her colleagues in calling on President Joe Biden to protect immigrant families before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

“As Senators who represent diverse states across our nation and who collectively represent millions of immigrant families, we write to express our deep concern about the threat the incoming administration poses to immigrants in our communities,” the Senators wrote in a letter to President Biden. “Mass deportations would jeopardize the safety and security of millions of mixed-status families, sow deep distrust and fear in the communities we represent, and destabilize the US economy. While we support common-sense steps to better secure our borders and improve border processing, we will continue to oppose any policies that contradict our nation’s core values.”

The letter continues, “We write now because the window to secure and finalize your administration’s policies is closing rapidly. We urge you to act decisively between now and the inauguration of the President-elect to complete the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families.”

In addition to Hirono, the letter was also signed by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Alex Padilla (D-CA).

The senators went on to request that the Biden Administration prioritize the following actions:

• Designate and extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for all eligible countries and consider providing Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) as appropriate;
• Expedite the processing of benefit requests for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients;
• Protect the ability for DACA holders and others to travel on advance parole;
• Prioritize adjudication of pending asylum claims; and
• Finalize the rule providing automatic extensions for those with work permits and prioritize work permit processing.

The Senators concluded their letter, “We stand ready to support you in these efforts and are committed to working together to ensure that these priorities are realized. Thank you for your continued leadership and dedication to the betterment of our nation.”

The full text of the letter is available here.