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Immigration

Our country was founded by immigrants who came seeking freedom and, also built, in part, by involuntary ensalved immigrants. A desire for freedom and a society where merit, not birthright, determines an individual's life helped to shape the greatest experiment in self-determination known the world over as America.

In the past and today, the hard work and determination of immigrants, seeking an opportunity to live up to their full potential and to build better lives for their families, make America strong. The freedom immigrants have found here has unleashed their creativity and sparked the strongest economy in the world. Immigrants created and continue to create new innovative enterprises and unparalleled prosperity for the United States.

People still look toward America and dream of a better life. Our colleges and universities attract some of the most gifted minds from around the globe. Talented entrepreneurs still see our country as a cradle for innovation and an area to pioneer new industries.

Zoe is the granddaughter of immigrants. She became an immigration lawyer and, before elected office, taught immigration law at the University of Santa Clara Law School. She knows that the country's immigration laws must be reformed if the United States is to succeed in the 21st Century.

As a senior member and former Chair of the House Judiciary Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee, Zoe tries to cut through the divisive political rhetoric to advance commonsense immigration policy solutions that are practical and will help America thrive.

America's Farm Workforce

The men and women who work America's farms feed the nation. But many of them do so while living and working in a state of uncertainty and fear. Stabilizing the workforce will protect the future of our farms and our food supply.

During the 116th Congress, Zoe led a group of bipartisan lawmakers in negotiations that resulted in the Farm Workforce Modernization Act – a comprehensive agricultural workforce reform bill that provides a path to legal status for an estimated 1.5 million farmworkers and improves the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program. The legislation was negotiated with input from farmers, agricultural stakeholders, labor organizations, and farmworker advocates. The sensible compromise is fully supported by the United Farmworkers of America and growers. The bill passed the House with overwhelming support in both the 116th and 117th Congresses.

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Farm Workforce Modernization Act
Top-to-Bottom Immigration Reform

Today, our immigration system is failing our country. Its dysfunction shuts out the best and brightest minds rather than attracting innovators who could grow our economy and keep it competitive. It traps determined, hard-working individuals in a cycle that exploits them for their labor. It separates spouses and parents from children for years.

Zoe believes that we should be able to work to fix this broken system through top-to-bottom immigration reform.

Rather than breaking families apart, we can unite them. Rather than expelling brilliant, highly-skilled students and entrepreneurs to compete against us in other countries, we should attract the best and brightest minds who want to help America succeed. Rather than failing to meet the needs of important sectors of our economy such as agriculture, we can help these industries legally employ their workforce.

By securing our borders and ensuring our laws are enforced, we can also regularize the status of those who currently live in the shadows to promote family unification and shared values like hard work and playing by the rules.

Zoe is recognized as a long-time champion of reform. Her leadership includes extensive efforts during the 113th Congress as part of an eight-person bipartisan House working group and an original cosponsor and advocate for the U.S. Citizenship Act in the 117th Congress.

Migrant Families at the Border & In Custody

Zoe has visited multiple U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facilities at America's southern border. She believes it's unconscionable that children are dying at the border and that migrant families continue to suffer from inhumane conditions while in U.S. custody. Because it is the responsibility of Congress to intervene when the Executive Branch isn't doing its job, she voted for emergency funding that would better provide those held by CBP with clean drinking water, healthy food, sanitary items, blankets, and medical services, among other forms of humanitarian aid.

Likewise, Zoe has called for the termination of multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts when facilities are operating in a substandard manner. Moreover, she has called for the decrease of detention for immigrants who pose no risk to public safety and are not flight risks.

Zoe know that the United States' southern border and custody issues would be made better if the country addresses the root causes of the refugee crisis in Central America. That is why she introduced the Northern Triangle and Border Stabilization Act, a comprehensive, five-pronged strategy to combat the underlying violence and instability that compels thousands of refugees to flee Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. It would create a regional plan in Central America to enable families and children to seek refuge in the United States and other nations, without having to make the dangerous journey to our southern border.

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ICE Enforcement
Compassionate, Apolitical, Humanitarian Focus

Throughout her tenure in Congress, and especially during the Trump Administration, Zoe led colleagues in addressing a multitude of immigration-related crises, including increased instability in the Northern Triangle region, and calling out constitutional and other abuses of power, including Trump's Muslim travel ban, the Migrant Protection Protocols ("Remain in Mexico" policy), and the "Zero Tolerance" policy that resulted in the separation of children from their parents at the border.

Zoe has been a constant advocate for those requiring humanitarian protection—in the form of Temporary Protected Status (TPS)—from return to regions engulfed in conflict or harmed by natural disasters, including for Ukraine, El Salvador, Haiti, Liberia, Cameroon, and Lebanon.

After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Zoe and bipartisan, bicameral colleagues introduced the Afghan Adjustment Act to provide stability for the people who put their lives on the line helping our troops and supporting America's mission overseas.

Zoe has also worked to improve and safeguard institutions so immigrants receive benefits, fairness, and due process. She led bipartisan efforts to prevent a virtual shutdown of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the 117th Congress and, in the same session, introduced the Real Courts, Rule of Law Act to create an immigration court system independent of the Executive Branch.

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Refugees
DREAM Act

Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program – commonly referred to as ‘Dreamers' – were brought into this country as children through no fault of their own and their enrollment in this program has allowed them to attend school and work legally in this country. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients escaped horrific violence and instability within their home countries by being granted a safe haven in the United States.

Dreamers and many TPS and DED recipients are Americans in every way except on paper. Many have now legally lived here and contributed to this country for decades.

Zoe shepherded House passage of the American Dream and Promise Act, which puts Dreamers and TPS and DED recipients on a pathway to citizenship, in the 116th and 117th Congresses.

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Dream and Promise
High-Skilled Workers

The basic framework for allocating immigrant visas dates back to the middle of the 20th century and was last seriously updated in 1990, when Congress established the worldwide numerical limits on visas and the 7% per-country cap that still exists today. Over time, these limitations have led to backlogs that were unimaginable in 1990. The effect has been that countries with relatively small populations are allocated the same number of visas as a relatively large-population country.

The result? A person from a large-population country with extraordinary qualifications who could contribute greatly to our economy and create jobs waits behind a person with lesser qualifications from a smaller country. It makes no sense. Because of this, we are now seeing recruiters from outside America luring those with the highest skills away from the U.S. That hurts our economy.

During the 116th Congress, Zoe led House efforts to pass a bill that would provide relief to those who have been stuck in the employment-based immigrant visa backlogs the longest due to the arbitrary per-country limits on such visas. She continued to champion the issue in the 117th Congress.

Zoe has also introduced legislation to create a new visa program for immigrant entrepreneurs. The Let Immigrants Kickstart Employment (LIKE) Act encouraged immigrant innovators to establish and develop their venture capital-backed start-up companies in the United States

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skilled workers

To learn more about Zoe's work on immigration issues, please click on the news links below:

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