WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema today sent a bipartisan letter to the Administration urging it to implement a limited pilot program to test how authorities can more quickly, accurately, and fairly determine whether migrants crossing the southern border have a valid claim to stay in the United States, and safely return those who do not to their home countries. Sinema is committed to fixing the broken immigration system, finding solutions to the crisis at the southern border, and ensuring migrants are treated fairly and humanely.
Sinema was joined on the letter by Republican Senator, and Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Ron Johnson (Wis.). Senators Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jones (D-Ala.), Portman (R-Ohio), Lankford (R-Okla.), Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Enzi (R-Wyo.), and Cornyn (R-Texas) also signed the letter.
“We write to urge you to use authorities in use as of June 30, 2019, to implement Operation Safe Return, a pilot program to rapidly, accurately and fairly determine those families who have crossed the southern border that clearly do not have a valid legal claim and safely return them to their home countries. Through this program, we expect that we can meet our commitments to humanitarian protections while ensuring proper efficiency, timeliness, order, and fairness in the credible fear screening process,” the Senators wrote.
Full text of the Senators’ letter can be found HERE.
