Introduction

 

I’m running for Congress as a next-generation Democrat because I believe we can lead with both strength and heart.

 

I grew up in Laredo, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border. I know what it means to live at the intersection of two countries, two languages, and two cultures. Folks would cross the border at Laredo for a variety of reasons. Families looking for safety, workers looking for opportunity, and communities on both sides shaped by shared hopes and struggles. I carry that experience with me and it shapes my belief that America’s strength comes when we meet people with dignity and fairness, not fear and cruelty.

 

America is a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We have always drawn our power from the families who came here seeking safety, freedom, and the chance to build something better. Yet today, we are failing those families, failing our values, and failing ourselves.

 

Our immigration system is broken. Not just broken on paper, but broken in lives: children going to bed wondering if their parents will come home, farmers watching their crops rot without workers, local businesses losing talent, young Dreamers wondering if the only home they’ve ever known will reject them.

 

This isn’t just policy. This is who we are.

 

Indiana’s Immigrant Story: Our Neighbors, Our Strength

 

Walk the streets of Indianapolis and you will hear the world. Spanish, Hakha Chin, Yoruba, Arabic, Haitian Creole—spoken in restaurants, schools, churches, and small businesses.

 

Indiana is home to over 350,000 immigrants and they are not strangers. They are the doctor caring for your child. The engineer building your city. The neighbor bringing tamales to the school fundraiser. The refugee who fled violence and is now rebuilding a life with courage you can’t measure.

 

From Burmese and Chin communities in Fort Wayne, to Latino families in Indianapolis, to Congolese and Nigerian business owners, Indiana’s immigrant communities are woven into the fabric of who we are. Immigrants strengthen our economy, our culture, and our neighborhoods.

 

The Human Cost of a Broken System

 

Yet for too long, we have allowed cruelty to masquerade as policy.

 

ICE raids at workplaces, parents ripped from their kids, asylum-seekers caged in freezing detention centers, young people who have known no other country living in fear of deportation. We’ve seen it here in Indiana. A mother in Indianapolis was deported before she could secure a passport for her U.S.-born toddler, leaving him stranded. And thousands of Hoosier Dreamers are building lives, earning degrees, paying taxes, and yet denied the right to fully belong.
 

Let’s be clear. No child anywhere should fear coming home to an empty house. And no worker should be treated as disposable.

 

We cannot call ourselves a moral nation if we turn a blind eye to the human suffering we allow at our borders and in our own backyard.

 

Smart Security, Real Solutions

 

We can—and must—secure our borders. But cruelty is not security.

 

We need smart, modern border management:

 

• High-tech screening to stop traffickers and fentanyl;,

• More asylum officers and judges to process cases fairly and efficiently; and

• Humane conditions for those in custody, especially children.

 

And let’s remember that Indiana’s farmers know this better than anyone. Without immigrant workers, crops don’t get harvested, cows don’t get milked, and family farms suffer. Farmers across Indiana have been clear that they don’t want fear-based policies. Instead, they want a system that lets them hire workers legally, pay them fairly, and keep their operations alive. Immigration reform is not just an urban issue. It’s a farm survival issue and a food security issue.

 

We must also be honest that walls and raids will never fix what’s broken. We need:

 

• A path to citizenship for long-term residents and Dreamers who contribute and obey the law;

• Modernized legal immigration to match 21st-century labor needs;

• Expanded work visas so people can come here legally;

• Community integration programs that help immigrants thrive from language classes to job training; and

• Enforcement focused on real threats and not families, workers, or kids.

 

This isn’t about “open borders.” It’s about open eyes and seeing the real people, real families, and real stakes at the heart of this debate.

 

Indiana’s Choice, America’s Promise

 

Indiana knows how to welcome. We did it when we opened our doors to Afghan allies at Camp Atterbury. We do it every day when faith groups, nonprofits, and local leaders help newcomers build a future here.

 

But we also know the cost of inaction: labor shortages, fractured families, fearful communities, and wasted human potential.

 

This is the choice before us. Will we build an immigration system rooted in dignity, fairness, and common sense? Or will we keep chasing fear, cruelty, and division?
 

We are strong enough to both secure our borders and open our hearts.

 

Let’s make Indiana and America a place where families can build, workers can contribute, and every child can dream without fear.

 

We are not just fighting for policy change. We are fighting for the soul of who we are.