Today, the House Appropriations Committee passed two amendments offered by Rep. Pete Aguilar to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The amendments prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from deporting, detaining or initiating removal proceedings for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The first amendment prohibits DHS from deporting DACA recipients who have served or are currently serving in the US Military, the second prohibits the deportation of DACA recipients more broadly, so long as they are in good standing and still meet all the requirements of eligibility for the DACA program.

“DACA recipients are American by nearly every measure, and they deserve to know that they have a future in the United States, the country where they grew up. These young people go to our schools, start businesses in our communities, and in some cases serve in our military. The passage of these amendments proves what we have known all along— that there is bipartisan support for protecting Dreamers. If Republican leadership refuses to allow us to pass bipartisan legislation to provide Dreamers with an earned path to citizenship, then we have to find ways to at least protect them from deportation. I’m proud that we moved another step toward that goal by passing these amendments,” said Rep. Aguilar.

A passionate advocate for Dreamers, Rep. Aguilar is the coauthor of the bipartisan USA Act, a bill to provide a legal path to citizenship for Dreamers while making commonsense improvements to security at the southwest border. Rep. Aguilar’s remarks on his amendment to prohibit the deportation of military servicemembers can be viewed here, and his remarks on his amendment to prohibit the deportation of all DACA recipients in good standing can be viewed here. Both amendments were passed on a bipartisan basis by voice vote.