Nashville, TN – The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is an unqualified success, providing new opportunities and futures for nearly 800,000 Dreamers who live, study, and work in America, including more than 8,300 in Tennessee. Each DACA recipient has come forward, passed a background check and been granted permission to live and work legally in America. As a result, many have been able to fulfill their dreams of attending and completing college; most are working legally, paying taxes and providing for their families; and all are finding ways to contribute to the country they call home without fear of deportation.
Yet the future of DACA is under serious threat. A coordinated assault on DACA, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, with the support of Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and state AGs in eight other states, and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is trying to force President Trump into ending the program. The Republican state officials are threatening that if the Trump Administration doesn’t end DACA by September 5th, they will sue to block the program before a notoriously anti-immigrant federal judge named Andrew Hanen. Paxton has a willing ally in embattled AG Sessions, who has long opposed DACA and would only have to refuse to defend the program in court for it to come to an end.
President Trump, who has said that Dreamers should “rest easy,” should stand up to the coordinated attempt to force his hand on DACA and keep protections for Dreamers in place. As the Wall Street Journal editorialized recently, President Trump needs to stand up to such bullying and stand up for Dreamers.
The entire Tennessee congressional delegation, as well as Gov. Haslem, state lawmakers, and mayors, should stand up for Tennessee Dreamers by supporting the newly reintroduced and bipartisan Dream Act. Lawmakers also should insist that DACA be kept in place until a clean version of the Dream Act is signed into law. While TN AG Slatery signed onto the Paxton-organized anti-DACA letter, other TN lawmakers should not allow his anti-DACA sentiment to represent the views of the entire state.
Tennessee also is a plaintiff in the underlying lawsuit that Texas wants to use to end DACA. TN AG Slatery joined Texas and other Republican-led states in an earlier lawsuit challenging the 2014 Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) policy, which never went into effect. The original DACA program, created in 2012, was originally not part of this earlier, DAPA-focused lawsuit. Now, Paxton, Slatery and others are threatening to amend that lawsuit to include DACA.
Below, we offer details and reminders on why DACA works and benefits us all. For more information, and to connect to DACA recipients in Tennessee, contact press@americasvoice.org
Ending DACA would be an economic disaster for America – including more than $347 million in lost annual GDP in Tennessee: New analysis by the Center for American Progress shows that a decision to end DACA would cost the U.S. government more than $460 billion in lost GDP over the next decade, including more than $347 million in lost annual GDP in Tennessee . The libertarian Cato Institute also projected major economic toll from ending DACA and deporting Dreamers, noting that “a repeal or roll-back of DACA would harm the economy and cost the U.S. government a significant amount of lost tax revenue. We estimate that the fiscal cost of immediately deporting the approximately 750,000 people currently in the DACA program would be over $60 billion to the federal government along with a $280 billion reduction in economic growth over the next decade.” And a report from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) projected that ending DACA would cost employers $3.4 billion in unnecessary turnover costs, while cutting $24.6 billion in Medicare and Social Security contributions over a decade.
DACA, and protection for Dreamers, is popular – even with Trump voters: Public support for Dreamers is strong, even among Trump supporters. According to an April Morning Consult and Politico poll, 78% of American voters support giving Dreamers the chance to stay permanently in America, including 73% of Trump voters. Only 14% of all voters (23% of Trump supporters) think Dreamers should be deported.
DACA is legal: it’s a common sense program that is lawful, constitutional, and consistent with decades of actions taken by presidents of both parties.Administrative actions on immigration have taken place since the Eisenhower administration. DACA has been subjected to legal scrutiny and withstood various politically motivated legal challenges – in fact, every legal challenge to the DACA program to date has failed.
Congress should pass the bipartisan Dream Act – and keep DACA in place until a clean bill is signed into law: Recently, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stepped up to introduce a bipartisan Dream Act in the U.S. Senate. This legislation, which would allow young immigrants to continue living their American Dream by accessing a path to citizenship, gives lawmakers a chance to move beyond words of support and to sponsor a concrete and permanent fix for young immigrants. As Senator Graham stated in a message directed at his fellow Republicans: “The campaign is over. To the Republican Party, who are we? What do we believe? The moment of reckoning is coming. When they write the history of these times, I’m going to be with these kids.”
Additional Resources on DACA and Dream Act:
- “American Dreamers” – the New York Times collection of Dreamer profiles and stories
- Pro-DACA letter from 20 State Attorneys General:Read the recent letter from Attorneys General in 19 states and the District of Columbia in support of DACA – featuring twice the number of signers as the anti-DACA effort led by AG Ken Paxton.
- Center for American Progress report on economic harm of ending DACA
- Overview on the newly reintroduced bipartisan Dream Act in the Senate
For more information, and to connect to DACA recipients in Tennessee, contactpress@americasvoice.org
