Brooklyn, N.Y. – Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke issued the following statement commending President Obama on his decision to review the policy of deportation currently applied by his administration, which has forcibly separated millions of Americans who lack legal status from their families and from the nation which to them has become a home.

“I believe that President Obama has heard our call to review his administration’s policy on deportation. President Obama had said that we must have a ‘humane’ policy on immigration, and I sincerely hope he will take action to address the existing policy of inhumanity. As the representative of a community that includes people from every part of the world, I know families that have lost a father or mother as a result of deportation. I know men and women who have lived in fear for themselves and their children. The continued deportation of Americans who lack legal status has undermined the foundations of communities around this nation,” said Congresswoman Clarke.  “I also urge my colleagues in Congress to act on comprehensive immigration reform, which is the only real solution to this issue. We have heard, again and again, that we must wait. But we cannot allow ‘later’ or ‘after the next election’ to become ‘never.’”

In 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 368,644 people. Congresswoman Clarke and several of her colleagues in the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Obama on December 5, 2013 requesting that he suspend the current policy on deportations and expand the policy of deferred action that currently allows young men and women without legal status to remain in the United States to pursue higher education or job training.

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.