00:00Thank you so much, Chairwoman Barragan, thank you, Senator Padilla, and all of the leaders
00:05here who have been working on ensuring that we make our immigration system just more fair.
00:12And that's what happened today.
00:13I think the vast majority of Americans out there, if you ask them, if a U.S. citizen
00:18marries somebody, is that person able to stay in the country?
00:23And I think most Americans believe that that is already possible.
00:27But in fact, the process that's in place is so convoluted, the person has to leave.
00:32If you have children, you have to leave your families behind.
00:34What President Biden did today is transformative.
00:37It is transformative for up to half a million people who now will finally get to stay in
00:44this country and apply for that ability to be with their families, to be with their kids,
00:49and also to be able to work.
00:51And I think with this president, who has created the lowest unemployment we've had in over
00:5650 years, allowing folks to come out of the shadows to be able to work as he is doing,
01:02both with the spouses of U.S. citizens, but also with DACA recipients, streamlining the
01:08process there, this is good for our families, it's good for our communities, and it is really
01:13good for our economy as well.
01:16This has been a long road.
01:18In November of last year, I led a letter with 87 of my colleagues asking for this parole
01:25in place for spouses of U.S. citizens, and with the Hispanic Caucus, with the Progressive
01:32Caucus, with so many other leaders, we have been advocating for this policy to be put
01:36in place.
01:37The same policy, by the way, that was used, as the president mentioned, with veterans.
01:42And so this is something that has been tried and tested, and we know it will stand up,
01:46and we are so grateful to President Joe Biden for using his executive authority to really
01:52transform the lives of people across this country.
01:55With that, it's my great honor to introduce somebody who has been such a leader on immigration,
02:00who serves on the Immigration Subcommittee with me, and has been a leader on the border
02:05in El Paso, Texas, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar.
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