ICYMI: Congresswomen Scholten & Salazar Join Forces for DIGNITY Act at World Relief Panel

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Hillary Scholten (MI-03) joined forces with Congresswoman Maria Salazar (FL-27) to discuss the historic, bipartisan DIGNITY Act. The discussion took place on a panel hosted by World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to boldly engage the world’s greatest crises in partnership with the church. The DIGNITY Act, endorsed by the Problem Solvers Caucus, is one of the first meaningful, bipartisan bills to reform the United States’ broken immigration system.

“Our DIGINITY Act is the only bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill that exists in Congress right now,” said Scholten. “I’ve worked within our immigration system for nearly two decades; on the enforcement side in the U.S. Department of Justice, but also walking hand in hand doing legal work for vulnerable immigrants. Humane enforcement needs to be at the center of everything we do. We’re gathered here as people of faith who understand our immigration system is deeply broken and with the DIGNITY Act we can reform our system with compassion.”

Congresswomen Scholten and Salazar stressed that immigration policy enacted by Congress and the incoming Trump administration should seek to protect immigrants who are valuable to the communities they live in, including veterans of our nation’s armed forces. 

“We must be careful to hold criminals accountable and not discriminate against ‘potential’ undocumented people,” said Scholten. “In a case I handled as an attorney working for legal aid during the first Trump administration, ICE detained a decorated Marine veteran just because of his last name and the color of his skin. It took us almost three days to get this young man out of ICE detention because they thought he might be illegal. We cannot allow this to happen again.”