Our Voices

Briefing: New resolution could allow unjustly deported people opportunity to return to U.S.

The National Immigrant Justice Center joined U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05) to introduce a new congressional resolution seeking to address the injustices and harms of deportation on U.S. families and communities. The Chance to Come Home Resolution, which Rep. Cleaver is co-sponsoring with U.S. Senator Cory Booker (NJ) and Representatives Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) and David Trone (MD-06), urges Congress and administrative agencies to provide deported individuals a meaningful opportunity to return to the United States. One of those individuals is 35-year old Spring Valley, NY resident Paul Pierrilus, who was unjustly deported to Haiti in 2021 despite never having stepped foot in the country before. In May 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul of the State of New York granted Paul a gubernatorial pardon at the request of RFK Human Rights and the Haitian Bridge Alliance; Paul’s application for humanitarian parole, a permission to enter the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons, is currently pending.