Immigration

Immigration is a defining part of our nation’s history. Generations of immigrants have helped build and strengthen this country, from those who passed through Ellis Island to today’s families, students, and workers seeking opportunity. Our immigration laws should reflect that legacy, rooted in fairness, due process, and human dignity. 

President Trump is openly disregarding these values. His Administration is weaponizing our immigration system, using needless cruelty and undermining core legal and Constitutional principles. Congressman Larson is fighting back against the Trump Administration, standing up for the rights of immigrants and advocating for a comprehensive legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship. 

Under the Trump Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been mobilized to terrorize our communities through unannounced raids, using unmarked vans, and wearing street clothes and face masks. American citizens have been wrongfully detained, legal immigrants have been swept up and asylum seekers making their required legal check-ins, have been arrested. These actions do not make Americans safer. The Trump Administration has revoked longstanding guardrails that protect American citizens and immigrants alike, including allowing immigration raids at schools and places of worship, giving ICE access to sensitive personal information at agencies like the IRS, and manipulating data at the Social Security Administration (SSA). This effort to conduct mass scale deportations by any means necessary has led to individuals being deported without proper due process and even in error. 

Rep. Larson helped introduce legislation to stop the immigration enforcement abuse, including the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (H.R. 1061) which would prevent agencies like ICE from operating within areas of worship, hospitals, schools, courthouses and social service agencies.  

Rep. Larson also supports the No Secret Police Act (H.R. 4176) and No Masks for ICE Act (H.R. 4004) to require immigration enforcement to display clear identification and ban face masks. Wearing masks and with no markings indicating they are law enforcement is a threat to public safety and is being done to avoid transparency or accountability. Immigration officials should not be held to lesser standards than our local law and local enforcement who do their work visibly and unmasked.  

President Trump’s anti-immigrant actions go beyond addressing undocumented immigrants. His Administration is also undermining longstanding policies supporting legal immigration and residency, includes imposing a near-total and indefinite stop in asylum applications and repealing Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which provides legal status for immigrants who are unable to return to their home countries due to conflict or disaster. Rep. Larson is taking action, including demanding that the White House restart the Afghan Refuge and Resettlement Program  to preserve temporary protected status visas for Afghan refugees, so that America can honor its promise to those who assisted us in wartime. Rep. Larson has also joined a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals amicus brief asserting that the Temporary Protected Status designation cannot simply be “vacated” by the Executive branch.  

These actions have led to the arrest and detention of immigrants who are lawfully in this country,  including Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Mr. Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE and deported to El Salvador despite a court order allowing him to remain in the U.S. Rep. Larson united with House Democrats in a letter calling on the President to use all of his authority to return Mr. Abrego Garcia to the US and his family after he was wrongfully detained. 

Perhaps most disturbingly, one of President Trump’s first actions upon taking office was signing an Executive Order that attempted to unilaterally end birthright citizenship, a right guaranteed by the 14^th Amendment. U.S. Constitution.  Rep. Larson has joined more than 100 of his Democratic colleagues on numerous court briefs fighting back against the Trump Administration’s illegal attempts to invalidate this constitutional right. 

The Trump Administration is using the detention and deportation of immigrants to advance their political agenda of fear and intimidation, even attacking free speech. They detained and unsuccessfully tried to deport college students, including Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, over their campus activism. The Administration also attempted to bar foreign students from attending Harvard by denying visas to admitted students over unrelated and ideologically driven disagreements with the school. 

Freedom of speech is enshrined in our Constitution. It’s part of what makes America great and separates our democracy from authoritarian regimes like China and Russia. No one in the United States should be punished simply because the government disagrees with their speech. Thanks to an outpouring of public and court pressure, the Administration was forced to relent. On April 3, Mohsen Mahdawi was freed, on June 30 Mr. Khalil was released, and the Administration’s student visa freeze was ended after less than three weeks.  

The way the Trump Administration has used our immigration system should alarm us all. Instead of stoking fears, tearing apart communities, and punishing political opponents, we need comprehensive policy that addresses our real issues at our border and with our immigration system in a serious and compassionate way. Throughout his time in Congress, Rep. Larson has advocated for comprehensive immigration reform.  

Last Congress, Larson supported the Bipartisan Border Bill (S. 4361), negotiated by Republicans and Democrats, including Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and James Lankford (R-OK). This bill would have achieved meaningful results to fix our immigration system by taking concrete steps to reduce illegal immigration, prevent the flow of dangerous narcotics, and enhance the asylum process. It was blocked by House and Senate Republican Leadership after then-candidate Donald Trump told them to kill the bill so it could be an election issue, putting party politics over real solutions.   

Rep. Larson also supports the U.S. Citizenship Act, introduced by Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA-38). This bill creates an earned path to U.S. citizenship for immigrants living in the United States who pass a background check, while modernizing border security and the asylum process.