Representative Adriano Espaillat Statement Following State of the Union Address

WASHINGTON, DC --Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) released the following statement in response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address:

“We have made tremendous progress under President Biden’s leadership to help families across our nation recover following challenges brought on by COVID-19. Since his first year in office, President Biden has prioritized policies that put workers, families and small businesses first, and because of his leadership, we are on the road to recovery. I stand ready to continue my collaboration with President Biden and his administration to ensure immigration reform, education and the well-being of our students and their families, and gun violence, which are among the most pressing issues facing my constituents remain at the forefront of our national discussions,” said Rep. Espaillat.

“In this significant moment on the world stage, the President laid out our efforts to rally the world to stand up for democracy against Russian aggression. The bravery of the Ukrainian people has inspired the world and as the President laid out plain and clear, America pledges to Ukraine that the United States stands with them and will provide military, economic, and humanitarian assistance. As a nation, we find ourselves in that gravest of moments – one that has been observed by so many generations before as we all witness the horror that is President Putin and the Russian government’s unprovoked war on the sovereign nation of Ukraine and her people,” continued Espaillat. “We are all witnessing the people of Ukraine, led by the inspired leadership of their president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, steadfastly and heroically resisting tyranny in the name of freedom and democracy. During this critical moment in modern day history, we understand that they fight not only for themselves but for all of the freedom-loving people of the world. The challenge before us is stark and plain as brutish tyranny in Europe is once again on the march just as it was some eighty plus years ago, and the people of Ukraine are the ones who are now standing in that tenuous breach and holding that fragile line between savagery and civilization, between darkness and the light.

“Tonight, we must stand with President Biden and we stand with Ukraine and her brave people as they defend themselves against the unprovoked war thrust upon them by Putin’s Russia. Their cause is ours, their cause is the cause of all who love democracy, independence, freedom – and Ukraine must not fail,” Espaillat concluded.

Earlier today, Rep. Espaillat led more than 40 of his House congressional colleagues in a bipartisan letter urging the Biden administration to designate Ukraine for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and provide Ukrainian students residing in the United States through F-1 visas special student relief (SSR). Click here to read the letter in its entirety.