IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 64 
Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and 
implement a Roadmap to Freedom in order to overhaul the outdated 
immigration system in the United States that has gone without signifi-
cant reform for decades, and to relieve the great human impact an 
unjust system bears on communities around the country. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 28, 2021 
Ms. JAYAPAL (for herself, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. ESCOBAR, Ms. OCASIO- 
CORTEZ, Ms. CHU, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. 
BUSH, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. 
ESPAILLAT, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HAS-
TINGS, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. JONES, Mr. 
KHANNA, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. MENG, Ms. 
MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OMAR, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. PA-
NETTA, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. POCAN, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. TORRES of New 
York, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, and Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, 
Homeland Security, and Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently 
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government 
to develop and implement a Roadmap to Freedom in 
order to overhaul the outdated immigration system in 
the United States that has gone without significant re-
form for decades, and to relieve the great human impact 
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•HRES 64 IH 
an unjust system bears on communities around the coun-
try. 
Whereas our strength as a country has always been greater 
when we welcome newcomers; 
Whereas today the United States is an economic and innova-
tion powerhouse due to the labor and lands of Indigenous 
peoples to which the United States has continuing trust 
and treaty responsibilities, the labor of enslaved people 
and their descendants, and generations of immigrants 
from every corner of the globe; 
Whereas immigrants and their families are a vital part of 
every community across the country; 
Whereas creating a fair immigration process that upholds our 
values and honors the courage and tenacity of people who 
have moved to pursue a better life, upholds our 
foundational commitment to liberty and justice for all; 
Whereas the majority of Americans support modernizing our 
Nation’s immigration laws and keeping families together; 
Whereas the United States is home to an estimated 10.5 mil-
lion undocumented immigrants and stateless individuals, 
approximately 16 million people living in mixed-status 
families, and at least 5.1 million children with an un-
documented parent; 
Whereas an estimated 19.8 million people who have immi-
grated to the United States support American families by 
providing health care, food, and other essential services 
during the COVID–19 pandemic, yet many—including 
mixed-status families—are excluded from almost all Fed-
eral pandemic relief, including access to testing, treat-
ment, and food and financial assistance; 
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Whereas these 19.8 million people are projected to continue 
playing a critical role in American life and work, and 
need a safe and fair immigration process; 
Whereas creating a fair and humane immigration system will 
help level the playing field for all working people and en-
sure that employers cannot take advantage of an out-
dated system to undermine worker voice and protections; 
Whereas people, businesses, and communities suffer due to 
an immigration system that is plagued by backlogs, proc-
essing delays, and overly complex policies that are ineffi-
cient, harmful, and widen the existing inequities in the 
system; 
Whereas immigrants—regardless of status—contribute bil-
lions every year in taxes, yet many have virtually no ac-
cess to safety net programs that are vital to ensuring 
that all communities thrive; 
Whereas all of us are harmed when our outdated and biased 
immigration system does not respond to the needs of the 
United States; 
Whereas today’s main immigration enforcement agency, the 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed 
after the September 11, 2001, attacks and reshaped im-
migration as a national security issue, and minimized im-
migration as an issue of humanitarian protection, family 
unity, and economic necessity—the effects of which have 
permeated immigration policies at all levels over the last 
nearly 20 years; 
Whereas the Trump Administration’s DHS has deployed 
agents and surveillance technology to suppress the con-
stitutionally protected First Amendment rights of citizens 
and noncitizens alike across the country; 
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Whereas our outdated immigration laws and rampant immi-
gration enforcement has disproportionately impacted low- 
income people, people of color, and Black, Latinx, Mus-
lim and Arab, Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants, im-
migrants from Indigenous communities and their fami-
lies, and borderland communities and these people have 
suffered gravely under policies that prioritize detention 
and deportation as a means of deterrence, including— 
(1) the separation of hundreds of thousands of fami-
lies resulting from implementation of the Trump adminis-
tration’s ‘‘Zero Tolerance’’ policy in addition to deporting 
tens of thousands of parents away from U.S. citizen chil-
dren annually, and families separated by lengthy proc-
essing backlogs and bans on people from Muslim-majority 
and African countries who have loved ones and family 
members in the United States; 
(2) over a million recipients of either Deferred Ac-
tion for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Pro-
tected Status (TPS) who have had their status taken 
away, bans on people from Muslim-majority and African 
countries, and the decimation of the asylum and refugee 
resettlement systems; 
(3) deplorable conditions in the custody of Customs 
and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement, including prolonged detention, rampant use 
of solitary confinement, crowded cells, rotten food, phys-
ical abuse, sexual abuse, medical abuse, and forced med-
ical procedures of detained women, including some result-
ing in sterilization; and 
(4) dozens of preventable deaths in the custody of 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and 
Border Protection, including deaths of children, due to 
medical neglect and suicide; 
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Whereas Black immigrants excel in all sectors of society, yet 
are disproportionately targeted by incarceration and de-
portation in which they experience abuse, longer periods 
of detention, and make up more than 20 percent of those 
facing deportation, despite making up approximately 
seven percent of the noncitizen population; 
Whereas Muslim immigrants contribute greatly to their com-
munities, yet have been disparately subjected to bans, 
visa denials and denaturalization efforts based on their 
religion and national origin, and the targets of racial and 
religious profiling, discrimination, bigotry, and hate 
crimes; 
Whereas Asian immigrants are the fastest growing immigrant 
population yet are harmed by lengthy backlogs that keep 
families apart and prevent them from becoming U.S. citi-
zens, and Southeast Asian immigrants are the largest 
refugee community in the United States, yet are three 
times more likely to be deported based on an old criminal 
conviction; 
Whereas indigenous immigrants have come to the United 
States fleeing persecution in great numbers in recent 
years yet have been subject to prolonged detention and 
forcibly returned to the countries they fled due to lan-
guage barriers and a lack of adequate interpretation in 
their native languages; 
Whereas Latinx immigrants represent the largest immigrant 
community in the United States yet are frequently 
scapegoated, criminalized, and racially profiled leading to 
discrimination, hate crimes, and targeting for detention 
and deportation due to collaboration between local law 
enforcement and Federal immigration authorities; 
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Whereas migration can increase a woman’s access to edu-
cation, economic independence, and autonomy, yet mi-
grant women’s work is not valued in the immigration sys-
tem and women are at a greater risk of exploitation, traf-
ficking, and abuse; 
Whereas the Federal Government unnecessarily spends $8.43 
million per day on immigrant detention at an average 
daily cost of $208 per detained immigrant, when those 
same people should be able to pursue their immigration 
case in communities, and cost-effective humane commu-
nity-based case management programs exist when need-
ed; 
Whereas the main drivers of the global displacement of peo-
ple include violence, food insecurity, extreme poverty, 
mass wealth inequality, the effects of climate change, en-
demic corruption, unfair judicial systems, harm done by 
multi-national corporations and mass consumption of re-
sources, and U.S. foreign policy and military intervention 
leading to decades of destabilization; 
Whereas our post-World War II commitment to provide ac-
cess to protection to people seeking safety in the United 
States has been almost completely dismantled under the 
Trump Administration; 
Whereas the politicization of the Immigration Court system 
has interfered with the efficient and fair operations of the 
Immigration Courts and resulted in due process viola-
tions; 
Whereas immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual as-
sault, and human and labor trafficking are vulnerable to 
ongoing abuse and exploitation for extended periods of 
time while their harm-doers are able to leverage the im-
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migration system as a tool of fear, exploitation, and prof-
it making; 
Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic deepened the injustices of 
the immigration system resulting in a tremendous spread 
of COVID–19 in detention, deaths of multiple persons in 
detention due to COVID–19, and mass expulsions of un-
accompanied children and asylum seekers at the border; 
and 
Whereas a fair and equitable immigration process that cen-
ters on family unity and humanitarian protection, and 
that works for all, is necessary to eliminate these sys-
temic injustices: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to 
develop and implement a Roadmap to Freedom by— 
(A) promoting full citizenship by creating 
an equitable roadmap that fosters and nurtures 
full citizenship, and investing in resources to 
clear the backlogged citizenship process; 
(B) protecting and strengthening a fair 
process centered on family unity by— 
(i) eliminating barriers to family re-
unification; 
(ii) preserving and strengthening fam-
ily based immigration; 
(iii) creating a just and accessible 
process for eligible individuals who are de-
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ported, detained, or in sanctuary to reunite 
with their families and communities, and 
return home in the United States; 
(C) promoting and preserving diversity by 
encouraging 
immigration 
from 
underrep-
resented countries; establishing opportunities 
for individuals who otherwise would not have an 
opportunity to migrate through existing family, 
humanitarian, or employment-based channels; 
and fostering new connections, unique perspec-
tives, and diversity within the United States 
through upholding and enhancing the diversity 
visa program; 
(D) establishing a just, humane system to 
uphold U.S. immigration laws by— 
(i) ensuring fairness and disentan-
gling the criminal and deportation systems 
such that the enforcement of immigration 
laws will not rely upon detention and de-
portation by— 
(I) creating scalable civil con-
sequences to immigration violations; 
(II) repealing harmful provisions 
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 
Immigrant 
Responsibility 
Act 
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(IIRIRA) and the Antiterrorism and 
Effective 
Death 
Penalty 
Act 
(AEDPA); 
(III) decriminalizing the acts of 
migration and seeking asylum; 
(IV) ending the 287(g) program 
and other programs that enable local 
law enforcement to enforce immigra-
tion laws or require or incentivize co-
operation and support for Federal im-
migration enforcement; and 
(V) ending the disproportionate 
immigration penalties that flow from 
involvement in the criminal legal sys-
tem, in particular on immigrants of 
color; 
(ii) ensuring that no person is re-
moved, expelled, or denied admission with-
out guaranteed and meaningful access to 
legal defense; 
(iii) mandating that all enforcement 
actions must comply with the Fourth 
Amendment, basic principles of fairness 
and due process, uphold civil rights and 
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