2019 Honoree: Congresswoman Katherine Clark
Immigrant constituents can count on Congresswoman Katherine Clark to truly listen, provide helpful insights and advice, and fight for them – on Capitol Hill, in her public advocacy, and behind the scenes.
She has represented the Fifth District of Massachusetts since winning a special election in December 2013. She had previously served as a state senator, state representative, general counsel for the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services, and policy chief for the state attorney general, and always stood out for her caring and support for immigrants.
On Capitol Hill, she quickly gained the respect of her peers, who last fall elected her as Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, making her the sixth-highest-ranking Democrat in the 116th Congress.
In order to better understand the perspectives of Dreamers, Congresswoman Clark organized roundtable discussions with DACA students at MassBay Community College and Tufts University. She has also met with TPS advocates and joined them at several rallies, and she is a cosponsor of the Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 6), to provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers and TPS holders.
Last summer, at the height of the “zero-tolerance” policy and family separations, she visited a detention center at the U.S.-Mexico border. She successfully intervened to reunite a Guatemalan constituent in Framingham with her 7-year-old daughter after a separation of more than 50 days. She is cosponsoring the Keep Families Together Act, to prohibit any future family separations, and she also cosponsored and voted for H.J. Res. 46 to block President Trump’s emergency declaration on the southern border.
In addition, she is cosponsoring the NO BAN Act, to repeal President Trump’s Muslim ban, and the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019, to eliminate per-country caps on employment-based green cards and raise the per-country limit for family sponsorships.
For always being there for immigrants, and for her exemplary leadership, we are proud to honor Congresswoman Katherine Clark at Give Liberty a Hand 2019.