NAKASEC, VACOLAO, and VACIR Urge Administration and Senate To Fulfill Their Constitutional Duty
WASHINGTON DC — The National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC), Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations (VACOLAO), and Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights (VACIR) ask community members to urge the Administration and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), and their state-designated senators to fulfill their constitutional obligations in the process of selecting a replacement for the recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia in the U.S. Supreme Court. Three weeks following the death of Justice Scalia, the U.S. Senate has yet to fill the vacancy in the court. Major cases ranging from voting rights to affirmative action could be affected by this vacancy including the United States v. Texas, a ruling against the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programs that would bring stability to an estimated 5 million hardworking immigrants by granting temporary protection from deportation and work authorization. A Migration Policy Institute report shows that 3.6 million undocumented immigrants are potentially eligible for DAPA with parents and their children being the most likely to be impacted by the program. There are 3.3 million individuals with a U.S. citizen or LPR child under 18 and 10.2 million living in families with a DAPA eligible parent.
Emily Kessel, Advocacy Director at NAKASEC, said: “This ruling against DAPA and expanded DACA is keeping millions of Americans who are relying on the programs to provide a measure of stability for their families in limbo as they wait to come out of the shadows and live without fear of family separation. The bottomline is that DAPA is legal. It is a common-sense, lawful exercise of executive discretion and executive actions taken by presidents from both parties from Eisenhower to Reagan to George HW Bush to Clinton serve as precedent for Obama’s executive actions. An estimated 48,600 or 27% of the undocumented Korean American population alone would be directly impacted. It is a tragedy to this nation that the Senate refuses to uphold its duty to fill this vacancy as soon as possible. Choosing politics over millions of families serves a great injustice to this nation. We ask all community members to call Majority Leader McConnell, Senator Grassley, and your state-designated senators and ask them to fulfill their constitutional duty.”
Edgar Aranda-Yanoc, Chair at VACOLAO: “Both the administration and the Senate have a constitutional duty to ensure that the Court functions at full strength. We cannot wait almost a full year for the Court to return to its nine member status currently being argued by Congressional Republicans. That would leave many vital issues impacting the lives of millions of people in legal limbo, including hard working immigrant families, and negatively impact our country. We do not need to wait for this year’s election to move forward to ensure the voters have a voice. They have already spoken twice by reelecting the current President.”
Monica Sarmiento, State Coordinator at VACIR, said: “It is imperative that a new Supreme Court Justice be swiftly nominated and confirmed. It is the duty of the Senate to confirm an appropriate nominee with in a timely manner. VACIR urges Senator McConnell to do the right thing and put the American people before American politics.“
To urge the Senate to fulfill its duty as soon as possible because America needs leadership to families before political games, please call the following numbers:
Senate Hotline at (202)-224-3121
Majority Leader McConnell at (202) 224-2541
Senator Grassley at (202) 224-3744
Senator Kaine at (202) 224-4024
Senator Warner at (202) 224-2023
