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Immigration Reform

February 7, 2024
Debating immigration laws in Washington is so fundamentally toxic that Congress hasn’t made major changes to dealing with the border in decades. And it might not for some time.

February 5, 2024
Senator James Lankford, the primary Republican negotiator on the Senate’s recently revealed border deal, is running out of patience with the rest of his party.

July 21, 2023
WASHINGTON — Today, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio), together with many colleagues, including the entire Texas Democratic delegation and the chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and Congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus, urged the Biden administration to assert its authority over federal immigration policy and foreign relations to investigate Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border operation and pursue legal action to stop the extraordinary cruelty against migrants detailed in recent reports from the San Antonio Express-News, the Houston Chronicle, and the New York Times.

May 11, 2023
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) spoke on the House Floor to oppose Republicans’ so-called “Secure the Border Act,” which does nothing to fix America’s immigration system but would wreck the economy, destroy the asylum system, and criminalize visa overstays.

December 13, 2022
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans from Texas made a show of force in the Capitol last week, announcing a border security package they said will be a top priority for the incoming GOP majority in January.

December 11, 2022
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans from Texas made a show of force in the Capitol last week, announcing a border security package they said will be a top priority for the incoming GOP majority in January.

October 29, 2021
More than two dozen Democratic members of Congress called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. attorney general to investigate legal problems that have arisen out of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative to arrest and jail migrants on state criminal charges.

June 28, 2021
Washington, D.C. – Ahead of President Trump’s trip with Governor Abbott to Hidalgo County this week, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) led all Democratic members of the Texas delegation in an effort urging Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to protect the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds available for Texas under the American Rescue Plan—and ensure that Governor Abbott cannot nefariously divert recovery funds into his sideshow of building portions of Trump’s ill-fated wall. Governor Abbott has directed that $250 million be taken from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a “down payment” for the wall and as of last Wednesday, he reported having raised only $459,000 in private donations for the wall.

June 28, 2021
WASHINGTON — Texas Democrats in Congress are irate that Gov. Greg Abbott can divert federal funds intended for COVID-19 relief to build a border wall. On Monday, they asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to step in and block the state from using any of its $15.8 billion windfall for this “costly monstrosity.”

Instead of building walls, we must build bridges. Passing comprehensive immigration reform will grow the Texas economy—it will mean more small business startups and more graduating students.