Senate Hearing: Impact of Potential Mass Deportations

On Tuesday, December 10, 2024 Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing, How Mass Deportations Will Separate American Families, Harm Our Armed Forces, and Devastate Our Economy.

Senator Durbin and other lawmakers emphasized the importance of redirecting congressional efforts toward bipartisan solutions that provide border security while offering a pathway to citizenship for long-term residents and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

Testimony was provided by a diverse panel of witnesses, including Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council; Foday Turay, a DACA recipient and Assistant District Attorney; Maj. General Randy Manner (Retired); Art Arthur, Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies and Patty Morin, whose daughter was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant in 2023.

Senator Durbin noted in his opening statement the indispensable role immigrants play across a variety of sectors including caregiving.

"It was an undocumented worker who was watching your grandchild this morning at the daycare center, an undocumented worker who walked carefully with your mother back to her room after breakfast, so she didn't fall down," Durbin is quoted saying in this December 10 2024 Roll Call article.

LeadingAge continues to call for comprehensive immigration reform to expand the aging services workforce recently releasing the Immigration Imperative, a white paper offering practical policy recommendations to increase the pipeline of foreign-born workers in aging services.