In the weeks leading up to the first presidential debate, a contentious matter was the Trump administration’s immigration policy, and Florida Democrats were leading the conversation considering that the sunshine state is a state that is home to many immigrants.
With the election taking place tomorrow, Florida rep. Darren Soto (D) has joined forces with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to introduces the American Families United Act, which is designed to preserve and promote family unity by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act. In turn, this would help millions of U.S. citizens to be reunited with their loved ones.
In a statement, rep. Soto expressed why he supports this legislation, explaining that he “was at the Orlando International Airport when my constituent, Alejandra Juárez, a mother and wife, boarded a plane and headed for Mexico, a country to which she was born but did not call home.”
Moreover, Soto detailed that Juárez “left behind her two American-born daughters, Pamela and Estela, and her husband, Temo, a veteran of both the U.S. Marines and Army.”
Since hearing of the news, Rep. Soto assured that he was going to never “give up fighting to reunite them,” so “the American Families United Act is key to fixing the broken immigration system that tears families apart and threatens the social fabric of thousands of communities across the country.”
In short, Soto vowed that “we will reunite the families impacted by the Administration’s cruel immigration policies!”
The legislation was first introduced by Texas rep. Beto O’Rourke (D), who most recently ran for the presidency after losing a Senate race in 2018. O'Rourke was inspired by the story of Egar Falcon, an El Pasoan from Texas’ 16th congressional district who married his wife on the U.S. – Mexico border in 2013 after she was denied a visa. As a result, Falcon has traveled between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso.
