Washington, DC – More key voices – including from red states like Texas – are calling on Congress to deliver on legislation that provides permanent solutions for long-settled immigrants, including DACA recipients who are vulnerable to deportation and others like Dreamers, TPS holders and farm workers.
- 71 mayors advocating for Congress to protect DACA recipients in The Hill, “In a letter Tuesday under the Cities for Action banner, the mayors warned that court action could soon invalidate the remainders of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, leaving hundreds of thousands of Dreamers in the lurch. ‘A potential Supreme Court decision could strip DACA recipients of their work permits, threaten the livelihood of over 1.3 million DACA-eligible individuals, their families and their communities, and place them on a path to deportation,’ wrote the mayors. The mayor’s argument for legislative action on Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as minors — is moral, economic and political.”
- “The right thing to do” – Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College in Dallas, in an Inside Higher Ed article titled “Higher Ed Groups Push for Permanent DACA Fix” said, “DACA has been transformational for students and the college, but because of uncertainty surrounding the program following the court decisions, many undocumented students who would qualify for DACA aren’t protected.”
- An opinion piece in the Austin American-Statesman asks, “More big tech is coming to Texas, but who will fill the jobs?”: “Immigrants are critical to meeting this demand. Despite making up just 17.1 percent of Texas’ population, they comprise 21.9 percent of the workforce. Among these workers are Texas Dreamers, young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children and grew up here. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was launched ten years ago, giving temporary legal and work authorization to 800,000 of these young people, but last year a Texas federal judge ruled against the program, putting a stop to any new applications. Now, more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants are graduating high school without the ability to apply for legal status. That’s a huge untapped resource.”
- San Diego Union Tribune editorial, “Congress needs to protect ‘Dreamers’ before the House of Representatives changes hands,” presses lawmakers to act. “Voters rejected hate, cruelty and extremism in the recent election. It’s time for Congress to do the same — to stop forcing young people to live with uncertainty and the well-founded fear that their families will be torn apart. Congress can and must deliver a legislative fix for hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” now.
According to Douglas Rivlin, Communications Director for America’s Voice:
“Year after year and poll after poll, we see the same result: approximately 70 percent of the country want Congress to finally deliver on permanent legal status for Dreamers and other undocumented populations. The opportunity is at hand this year and the stakes are high: without a permanent solution, our country and our economy will likely face the prospect of hundreds of thousands of DACA workers losing their jobs, TPS holders continue to live their lives in 18 month increments and a farm labor sector where labor rights are not fully protected and inflationary labor shortages persist.
Mayors, business leaders, university presidents and diverse voices from red states like Texas and across the country are pleading with Congress to finally deliver on a point of American consensus. Passing important and overdue immigration legislation to provide a permanent status to Dreamers, farm workers, and other long-settled immigrants is the right thing to do, but the Senate must act quickly before House Republican hardliners make action more difficult next year. Congress, and the Republican Party, has a chance to demonstrate that it can still be part of a popular and economically beneficial solution before it’s too late.”
