Press Releases

Today, Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA-24), a Co-Chair of the New Democrat Coalition’s Immigration and Border Security Task Force, announced he will vote against two different political gimmicks deployed by House Republicans to create chaos and do nothing to responsibly tackle the national security challenges facing the United States.

Later today, Congressman Carbajal will reject the partisan impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the baseless charges that conservative thought leaders have said ‘achieves nothing’.

Congressman Carbajal also opposes the foreign aid package for Israel as written by House Republicans, which deliberately excludes any funding for humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza or Israel, as well as any additional support for meeting the challenges in Ukraine or at the Southern border.

Ahead of the two votes in the U.S. House later today, Congressman Carbajal released the following statement:

“For the past year, House Republican leaders have made it clear time and time again that they are less interested in governing than they are playing political games – antics which have done everything from holding our economy hostage to categorically refusing to consider bipartisan fixes to our broken immigration system.

“This week, House Republicans have two more cynical ploys that seek to create the illusion that they’re interested in meeting America’s national security needs. No American should fall for this political charade.

“First, rather than engaging with the Senate after its months of bipartisan negotiations to tackle border security, House Republicans instead refuse to even debate a solution, and instead revert to their favorite tool: pursuing a baseless impeachment – this time the first impeachment of a Cabinet Secretary in 150 years.

“And rather than recognizing that the challenges in the Middle East will not be solved without desperately-needed humanitarian aid, or that Ukraine is also in urgent need of additional support in their fight against Russia, House Republicans chose again to write a bill that misses the mark and intentionally avoids allowing the House to debate the holistic solutions that President Joe Biden has urged Congress to approve.

“The world is looking to us to lead. The American people are calling on us to act. But these votes we are taking today are not leadership, and they are not action. They are gimmicks.”

Congressman Carbajal has been a leading voice in speaking out against Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to consider bipartisan fixes to address backlogs and security challenges at the southern border.

Rep. Carbajal led a call of nearly 60 of the Democrats urging Speaker Johnson to work across the aisle in good faith on bipartisan legislation that would help reform the United States’ broken immigration system.

Carbajal has also pushed for the swift consideration of additional funding to address asylum backlogs in immigration courts, and urged the Administration and House leadership to advance additional funding to streamline immigration processes, secure the border, and tackle the fentanyl crisis. 

Earlier this year, Congressman Salud Carbajal also joined a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives calling on the Biden Administration to help scale up efforts to deliver life-saving aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza and seeking the renewal of the humanitarian ceasefires that had previously helped facilitate safe delivery of that aid and secure the release of the remaining hostages.

Congressman Carbajal was part of an effort signed by 92 members of the U.S. House of Representatives reiterating the need for humanitarian aid to protect the lives of Palestinians, Americans, and Israelis, “whose security will be weakened if we fail to meet the humanitarian needs in the region.”

Rep. Carbajal immigrated to the United States when he was five years old from Mexico. His father worked as a farmworker in Ventura County, where Carbajal joined him in the summers growing up to help pick the vegetables that feed the nation and the world.

As someone who came to the United States when its immigration system worked, he has worked diligently to find common ground to implement commonsense immigration solutions.

He is one of the leading voices behind the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would provide stability and fairness for farmworkers and address workforce shortages in the agriculture industry.

He also is the author of the bipartisan Protect Patriot Parents Act, which would make parents of U.S. military servicemembers eligible to adjust for Lawful Permanent Resident status, preventing potential deportations or separations of military families.

He is also a cosponsor and champion of the bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act, which would permanently codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for the nearly 800,000 young people who came to the United States as children.