For Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), immigrant rights are a personal issue, and she wants everyone — particularly Republicans — to feel the same way.
“When I’m able to make the connections between immigration and the economy, we bring people in. We, as Democrats, have not been able to do that, and I think this is part of a challenge in the work ahead for us,” she said.
Ramirez’s Guatemalan mother was pregnant with her when she crossed the Rio Grande.
Boris Hernandez, Ramirez’s husband, was a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient until he received his green card in November, 22 months after his wife was first sworn into Congress.
And nearly 30 percent of Ramirez’s congressional district is foreign born.
Her understanding of how to engage nonimmigrant communities on immigration comes from a personal and painful place.
Two days before the election, she received the welcome news of Hernandez’s successful green card application. On Election Day, Ramirez and Hernandez found out Hernandez’s brother Johnny died, undocumented, in Minersville, Pa.
“He was beloved, in spite of his status, because people knew him,” Ramirez told The Hill on Nov. 12.
Ramirez said she is ready to work across the aisle to find connections like Johnny found in Minersville, but not before pushing the Biden administration to do all it can to protect immigrants in its last few weeks.
“And maybe it is like taking a page from Trump’s book, which will be probably the last time I ever say that, but, but to say like, ‘I refuse to be a loser and I refuse to be paralyzed by this moment.’ We still have authority, while we still have majority in the Senate and the White House. There are a number of things we could be doing, sitting here, twirling our thumbs and waiting for the worst to happen,” she said.
But the long-term work for Democrats, Ramirez said, will be to make a broader case for immigration.
“Democrats have a problem talking about immigration. We put ourselves into this position. The border issue — put ourselves into it. We allowed Republicans to set the framework and the framing, and then we just apologize. We’re all over the place, not clear what our response would be, except playing a blame game.”