One Step Closer to Universal Healthcare and the American Dream and Promise

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, I rise today and applaud the President. The President's recent announcement of a plan that would allow more than 800,000 Dreamers across our county to have access to healthcare is to be applauded.

I also thank Congresswoman Ramirez for her dedication and leadership and for hosting this important Special Order on this critical issue.

I stand here before you as a child of immigrants but also the daughter of southwest Detroit, where I lived with 20 different ethnicities and backgrounds. Yes, many of my friends, many of my classmates, were Dreamers.

We know that many of the issues we work on in this Chamber are connected. Immigration is connected to healthcare. Right now, in our country, we have a great need for comprehensive immigration reform and to ensure that every person has access to adequate healthcare in terms of coverage and care delivery.

As somebody who worked on immigration issues and immigration justice, I know that our system is broken. Too many of our families are living in fear. Too many Dreamers, our neighbors who only know the United States as their home, continue to live a life where their rights could be stripped at any moment.

I know how important it is to fix our broken immigration system instead of tearing families apart. Dreamers right here in our country deserve permanent protections and a dignified pathway for citizenship.

No human being, Mr. Speaker, is illegal. We must protect our neighbors. We must protect those who are here simply because they want to have a better quality of life.

We have immigrant communities, again, across our country who simply want a pathway to citizenship, a pathway that many of our parents, grandparents, and ancestors were afforded, a pathway that we enjoy and are proud of.

Why do many of my colleagues want to block this pathway in the land of opportunity?

I am not sure. However, I know I applaud the administration's action to ensure that many Dreamers have access to healthcare. I implore President Biden and many of my colleagues in this Chamber and in the Senate to reject divisive and xenophobic immigration policies that, again, do not move our country forward in a way that we can be proud of.

We cannot and should not embrace rhetoric and policies that only seek to pit communities against each other, tear families apart, and put immigrants in harm's way here in the United States and in their country of origin.

We must choose to be a welcoming country. We must work to create a robust pathway to citizenship. We must enact comprehensive immigration reform. We must ensure that every person in our country has comprehensive adequate healthcare. We must also pass Medicare for All.

Mr. Speaker, I am ready to get to work, and I cannot thank my amazing Progressive Caucus members enough, especially Congresswoman Ramirez, for this important Special Order.

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