Pramila Jayapal named ranking member of immigration subcommittee

Indian American lawmaker is first immigrant to serve in leadership role for the subcommittee

Indian American US Representative Pramila Jayapal has been named Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.

Chennai, India-born Jayapal, 57, who came to the US at the age of 16, is the first immigrant in recorded committee history to serve as either Ranking Member or Chair of this Subcommittee.

Democrat Jayapal who has been representing Washington’s 7th Congressional district since 2017 succeeds fellow Democrat Zoe Lofgren.

Read: Pramila Jayapal introduces bill to extend healthcare to immigrants (May 12, 2021)

“As the first South Asian woman elected to the US House of Representatives and one of only two dozen naturalized citizens in Congress, I am honored and humbled to serve as the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement,” said Jayapal.

“I came to this country when I was 16, alone, and with nothing in my pockets. After 17 years on an alphabet soup of visas to become a US citizen, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to live the American Dream, a dream that is out of reach for too many immigrants today.

“It is extremely meaningful to me that I will now be in this position to better move the needle and recenter our broken immigration system around dignity, humanity, and justice.

“As I step into this role, I would also like to thank Representative Lofgren for her years of dedicated leadership on the Subcommittee, and look forward to continuing to work with her,” Jayapal stated.

“As the House Judiciary Committee gets to work, it is unfortunately becoming clear that the Republican leadership of the committee has no intention of engaging in good faith solutions to reform our immigration laws,” she stated.

“In the minority, Democrats will have to be an opposition party that stands up to the most extreme ideas of the Republican Party and protects our values,” Jayapal stated.

Pramila Jayapal seeks path to citizenship for essential immigrant workers (January 29, 2021)

“However, in this role, I also see promise for bipartisan work with a number of more moderate Republicans who themselves understand the need to restore our country as a beacon of hope.”

The Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement will be chaired by Republican Tom McClintock and has jurisdiction over immigration law and policy, naturalization, border security, refugee admissions, non-border immigration enforcement, and other various issues.

The fight to reform our immigration laws has been a core tenet of Jayapal’s work in Congress, according to a press release from the Indian American lawmaker’s office.

She has introduced multiple landmark bills and resolutions including her Roadmap to Freedom Resolution, Access to Counsel Act, Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, WISE Act, Protection of Kids in Immigrant Detention Act, and HEAL Act among others to outline a framework for what a fair, humane immigration system could look like.

Before coming to Congress, Jayapal was a longtime organizer and activist for immigrants’ rights. Following the Sep 11 attacks, she started OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone), the largest immigrant rights organization in Washington State that successfully sued the Bush Administration to prevent the deportation of more than 4,000 Somalis and worked with the Governor to establish a New Americans Council on immigrant integration at the state level.

Read: Jayapal is first immigrant to serve in leadership role for the subcommittee (January 31, 2023)

For her work at OneAmerica, she was recognized as a Champion of Change by the Obama White House. She was the founding co-chair of the We Belong Together campaign to mobilize women in support of common-sense immigration reform to keep families together and empower women.

She was also arrested during a civil obedience demonstration protesting the Trump Administration’s zero humanity family separation policy.

Pramila Jayapal seeks path to citizenship for essential immigrant workers (January 29, 2021)

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Sen. Kamala Harris bills to place moratorium on ICE detention centers (May 16, 2018)

Indian American Rep. Pramila Jayapal calls Trump’s proposed immigration policy ‘cruel and inhumane’ (August 4, 2017 )

Stop surveilling social media accounts of immigrants and Americans, write Pramila Jayapal and Raja Krishnamoorthi to Donald Trump (October 12, 2017)