Rep. Salud Carbajal’s bill to protect the parents of military members from being deported passed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the congressman’s team announced in a news release.
The Protect Patriot Parents Act would make parents of military servicemembers eligible for Lawful Permanent Resident status, also known as a green card, which would prevent deportations and separations of military families.
The bill is now headed to the U.S. Senate.
“The families of our servicemembers deserve our respect for their sacrifice, not deportation — and I am pleased to see that the majority of my colleagues in the House agree,” Carbajal said in the release, adding that senators should act on this bill and other “critical commonsense immigration reforms” before the end of the congressional session.
“Bills like the one we approved today — in addition to others that I have co-sponsored like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the American Dream and Promise Act, which would codify the DACA program — have languished for too long and left too many families in limbo. We owe it to them to send these bills to President Biden before Congress adjourns at the end of this month,” he said.
The bill was inspired by Juana Flores, who was deported in 2019 despite her son, Sgt. Cesar Flores, actively serving in the Air Force. She was allowed to return to the U.S. after “public outcry and lobbying from Carbajal and other community leaders,” the release said.
Juana Flores had lived in the United States for more than 30 years at the time she was deported.
“As a veteran and immigrant myself, I find it unconscionable that someone could step up to voluntarily serve in the military and be willing to sacrifice their life for our country only to have their family torn apart,” Carbajal said in the release. “The Protect Patriot Parents Act will help shape an immigration system that is fair, keeps families together, and recognizes the positive contributions immigrants and their families make to our communities.”
The bill would protect an estimated 80,000 undocumented spouses and parents of U.S. active duty and former service members, the release said.
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