U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego called on his fellow lawmakers to reform the nation’s immigration laws to protect long-time undocumented residents who were brought to the country as children.
At a press conference with other Democratic senators, Kelly criticized the mass deportation effort undertaken by the Trump administration, accusing federal immigration officials of targeting law-abiding citizens, including children, business owners and veterans.
Kelly pointed to the case of Annie Ramos, a military spouse and Arizona State University student who was detained by immigration agents earlier this year as she tried to check in at a military base in Louisiana with her husband, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank.
Ramos, who was born in Honduras, entered the U.S. in 2005 when she was under 2 years old.
Blank’s mother Jen Rickling, a southern Arizona resident, said Ramos is a biochemistry major at ASU and a Sunday school teacher.
“The best way I can describe her is someone who brings light to everyone she interacts with,” said Rickling, who appeared at the press conference in Washington, D.C., alongside Kelly.
Kelly said the administration should prioritize the deportation of “serious criminals,” not Dreamers, referring to immigrants brought to the U.S. without documentation as children.
“In what world does it make sense for us to focus our time and our effort chasing down and holding people like Annie?” he said. “We should be chasing down serious criminals.”
In 2012, then-President Barack Obama’s administration created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program to provide temporary protection from deportation for people who were brought to the U.S. as children.
For decades, Congress has proven unable to pass comprehensive immigration reform to provide a pathway to citizenship for people like Ramos, leaving uncertainty for Dreamers relying on the program.
In 2020, Ramos applied to receive DACA but her husband said her application has remained “in limbo” amid legal fights to end the Obama-era program, the Associated Press reported.
Kelly said it's well past time for Congress to act.
“We can pass laws to make sure that Dreamers are safe and secure in the only home many of them have ever known,” Kelly said.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security defended the decision to detain Ramos.
“She has no legal status to be in this country,” according to the department. “This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
But the department confirmed that she is facing “further removal proceedings.”
Meanwhile, Gallego spoke at a forum to call on Congress to pass the Dream Act, a measure that would provide a pathway to legal status for Dreamers. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and Sen. Lisa Murkowsky, a Republican.
But Gallego accused the Trump administration of blocking the bill.
"What this administration is doing is they're basically being cowards because they know that Dreamers and the Dream Act have bipartisan support. ... They're trying to do it in a backdoor way by basically making it so difficult for Dreamers to get their permission renewed again to the point where then that they're finally exposed to deportation," Gallego said at the forum.
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