During the 116th Congress, Zoe led a group of bipartisan lawmakers in negotiations with the United Farmworkers of America and Farm Bureau that resulted in the Farm Workforce Modernization Act – a comprehensive agricultural workforce reform bill that provides a path to legal status for an estimated 1.5 million farmworkers and improves the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program. The bill passed the House with overwhelming support in both the 116th and 117th Congresses. Zoe has authored multiple versions of the “Dream Act” in different sessions of Congress because she knows that Dreamers are as American as any of us – except for paperwork. Most recently, H.R. 6 – the American Dream and Promise Act – passed the House thanks to Zoe’s leadership. It would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients. Zoe is currently part of the “House Closers” pushing President Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act, and she has been part of other comprehensive immigration working groups in the past.
Zoe led House efforts to include immigration measures in the Build Back Better Act, and consistently champions efforts to ease the hardships associated with the lengthy family-sponsored and employment-based and immigrant visa backlogs.
Throughout her tenure in Congress, and especially during the Trump Administration, Zoe led colleagues in addressing a multitude of immigration-related crises, including increased instability in the Northern Triangle region, and calling out constitutional and other abuses of power, including Trump’s Muslim travel ban, the Migrant Protection Protocols (“Remain in Mexico” policy), and the “Zero Tolerance” policy that resulted in the separation of children from their parents at the border.
