Congressman Maxwell Frost calls for immigration policy changes in Orlando press conference. (Photo by Connor Barry)
ORLANDO | Congressman Maxwell Frost held a press conference Jan. 8 at Christ the King Episcopal Church to discuss the current state of immigration in the United States and ongoing negotiations for new immigration policy changes.
Along with community leaders Father Jose Rodriguez, Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet and Tessa Petit, Frost talked about potential harmful impacts of changes currently being discussed by senators in D.C.
“They hold our government funding hostage to change and implement their inhumane policies at the border and for immigration across the entire country. They want to slash asylum … they want to end protections for migrant children and lengthen the time that children can be held in adult facilities at the border,” Frost said.
Frost went on to talk about other changes being discussed, such as slashing the humanitarian parole program, a program that allows temporary asylum for people in urgent humanitarian need who may not have otherwise been admitted into the United States.
Along with humanitarian parole, Frost also said the discussions included denial for asylum seekers who traveled through other countries to get here, creation of more detention facilities and pausing the ability for people to claim asylum.
Frost raised his voice and furrowed his eyebrows when expressing his frustration with not being able to participate in these discussions.
“Right now, it’s about five or six senators in a room, deciding the fate of immigration in this country. Your member of Congress that fought to get there to fight for these very issues is not included in the conversation,” Frost said. “We need a real conversation, not a few senators in Congress.”
This frustration was echoed by multiple speakers at the Congressman’s press conference. First by Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
“The United States gave me safety because only the asylum system was able to protect my life. That’s why I’m here today, to ask you to call your members of Congress,” Petit said. “Tell people that it is not fair that decisions regarding people’s lives are made by a handful of people and this is not the democracy that we stand for.”
Sousa-Lazaballet, the executive director of the Hope Community Center, was second to agree with Frost’s frustrations.
“My call to Congress is not to sell us out as some bargaining chip that you’re working out in some back room, that I don’t even know where it is. Congressman Maxwell Frost, the person who represents us, should be in that room because he is bringing our voices to Washington DC,” Sousa-Lazaballet said. “If you are from Orlando and you’re not angry that you’re Congress person is not participating in this conversation, you know, wake up.”
Sousa-Lazaballet explained in an interview that the issue of immigration is also an LGBTQ+ issue.
“Asylum is a system that exists to protect the lives of people from persecution and LGBTQ+ people are facing life threatening situations in many places across the world,” Sousa-Lazaballet said. “If asylum is gutted in the way that Congress is currently considering, it could leave thousands to die.”
Sousa-Lazaballet gave himself as an example. As an LGBTQ+ immigrant from Brazil, he came to the U.S. when he was only 14 years old from a country that he said has the highest number of LGBTQ+ hate crimes in the world.
It is for reasons like this that he stresses the importance of supporting one another.
“I am constantly asking and reminding our LGBTQ+ community to stand in solidarity with immigrants and also for immigrants to stand with the LGBTQ+ community,” Sousa-Lazaballet said.
Beyond just the LGBTQ+ community, he said that much more is needed to protect immigrants in the US and around the world.
“My call to action for all Central Floridians is to look at me and remember when you go out and vote that I exist. That we exist. That we belong in this country, and this is our home,” Sousa-Lazaballet said.
