Aguilar was expanding on a proposal outlined Thursday by Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
“The CHC has developed a strategy on executive orders that we’re going to start negotiating with the administration very soon,” he said, including steps “to reduce the backlog and to provide help for the immigrant families, women and children, and help them on their path of … creating a professional humane immigration system.”
Other priorities include ending the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Title 42 authority to restrict immigration because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as changing the Migrant Protection Protocols often referred to as “Remain in Mexico.”
Jayapal says her caucus hopes to unveil a broad slate of proposed executive actions next week. While she declined to detail specifics to reporters gathered at the issues conference, Jayapal has been among the Senate and House Democrats calling for Biden to use executive authority to cancel student loan debt. Potential executive action on that topic has been in what appears to be a perpetual state of legal review.
“I don’t want anyone to think that we believe that executive action is better than legislation. We would always prefer to have legislation,” Jayapal, D- Wash., said Thursday. “But certainly there are a lot of areas where A) if we don’t get legislation, the administration can take action, and B) the administration can take action to help move us more quickly towards the goals that we’re working on.”