Issued August 09, 2021
WASHINGTON, DC: Service Employees International Union Executive Vice President Rocio Sáenz released the following statement today in response to the Senate’s 2022 fiscal year budget instructions:
“The Senate Budget Committee took an essential first step toward building our country back better this morning by including a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who call this country home in its draft Budget Resolution and as well as providing for investments in good, union, living-wage home care jobs - a workforce that is primarily led by Black, Brown and immigrant women. Immigrants have worked on our frontlines as home care workers, nurses, and cleaners, keeping our families safe and our hospitals clean during a deadly pandemic. They are also our teachers, lawyers, first responders, and so much more. It is long past time for Congress to recognize all that they contribute to our nation and unleash their full capacity to make an even greater contribution.
A pathway to citizenship is not only a moral imperative, it is an economic imperative that will strengthen our country for the long term. In fact, creating a pathway to citizenship would raise the annual wages of the average American worker by $600. Enactment of the immigration provisions in the Budget Resolution would mark an important step toward respecting, protecting, and honoring immigrants, so they can participate in our society and economy without fear of deportation. Working people marched and mobilized at the ballot box last year for this kind of transformational change — it’s time for our nation’s elected leaders to deliver on the full promise of Biden’s Build Back Better plan.