Houston is a city of immigrants. It is at the core of our very identity, and an essential part of what makes the Houston area a great place to live.

There is no doubt that we need to fix our immigration system.  It will not be easy to do. But instead of meaningfully addressing it, Congress has played politics for decades, using scare tactics to win elections instead of doing what’s best for our country.

We need comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship.  It should be thoughtful, practical, and fair.  It should include strengthening our border security, cracking down on employers who break the law, and ensuring law enforcement, including immigration and customs enforcement, can do its job to keep our communities safe.  It should not include building a wall between us and our state’s top trading partner or dehumanizing those who seek asylum at our borders.

In Congress, I have worked to address our broken immigration system and provided practical solutions toward comprehensive immigration reform.  I led an effort requesting that Congress make it possible to hire more highly qualified immigration judges to accelerate the process and help reduce the nearly 1.7 million pending immigration cases, improve our immigration system, and ensure due process.

I co-sponsored and voted for the American Dream and Promise Act to protect DACA and TPS recipients, and the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act, outlawing discrimination in the entry of immigrants or nonimmigrants based on religion, in addition to the protections against discrimination based on race, sex, nationality, place of birth, and place of residence already in place.

I have spoken out against white supremacist terrorism and anti-immigrant rhetoric.  And I have focused on addressing the unprecedented delays at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that are hurting families and businesses as well as other matters at the agency.