First Female President signs Executive Orders expanding immigration, embracing refugees

San Francisco, CA — On this, her sixth day in office, President McCarthy signed a series of Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda in keeping with her promises to expand pathways to citizenship and to honor the United State’s role as a refuge in times of crisis. These Executive Orders require the country to take in up to 200,000 refugees annually, doubling the previous cap. Additional orders direct the government to revisit the DREAM Act and expand citizenship pathways for undocumented immigrants.

President McCarthy directed Congress to prioritize the passage of the DREAM Act, and to immediately commence work on new legislation easing the path to citizenship for Americans living in and contributing to the United States.

The President spoke about her own family’s history with immigration to the U.S., saying, “My grandmother was an immigrant. She and my grandfather met, by accident, on top of the Statue of Liberty. The fell in love, got married, and worked hard side by side for the rest of their lives on their own small dairy farm in Tennessee. They raised their children together. Their family was stronger not because my grandmother perfectly assimilated into American culture, but because she and her husband raised their children with the wisdom and perspectives of their two different cultures, but the same love.”

Additionally, the President committed to prioritizing the “urgent humanitarian crisis the world faces” in finding homes for Syrian refugees. The President cited the “impressive and thorough” vetting process the U.S. has developed to screen refugees.

While the United States remains the single largest donor of humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, the President stated, “we have not kept up with our promise, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’” The President continued, “Those words were written in a time of trial. A time when refugees were fleeing Europe and searching for a safe haven. A place to raise their family, to practice their religion. America promised them that we would be that country. Today, we rededicate ourselves to that promise. The eyes of the world are upon us. Today, we open our arms and our borders in an embrace to the world.”