Anti-Immigrant Leaders and ICE Agents Join Forces to Try to Stop DREAMers from Gaining Security and Work Permission in America
Washington, DC – Kris Kobach, immigration advisor to the Romney campaign, architect of the infamous Arizona and Alabama immigration laws, and driving force behind the Republican Party’s hard line platform on immigration, today joined with Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, head of a leading anti-immigrant organization, and Chris Crane, the head of the ICE Union, to file a lawsuit against U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton. They seek to block the implementation of the DREAMer deferred action program that would allow certain young immigrants who came here as children to get work papers for two years.
The following is a reaction from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice to the lawsuit and its implications:
“The young people who qualify for the DREAMer Deferred Action initiative are Americans in all but paperwork. They pledge allegiance to the flag every day in school, want only to attend college or serve in the military, and want only to contribute their talents to the country they love. And these schoolyard bullies want to stand in their way? Have they no shame?
“Kris Kobach, Roy Beck and Chris Crane have jumped the shark on this one. They seem determined to go down in history as this generation’s unreconstructed xenophobes who are best known for trying to slam the door of opportunity in the faces of the Latino kids who grew up in America and call America their home.”
A number of questions have to be asked and answered:
- Mitt Romney: Will you continue to trumpet Kobach’s endorsement and accept his advice? Or will you finally distance yourself from the man who wants to keep some of the best and the brightest of the Latino community from realizing their dreams and making America a better place?
- Chris Crane: Do ICE agents really believe they should be spending their time chasing down high school valedictorians and talented college students instead of going after bad guys? Don’t you think this kind of action, bordering on insubordination, will further damage your agency’s already poor reputation and standing in the law enforcement community?
- Kris Kobach: Now that your efforts to target immigrant families in Arizona, Alabama and elsewhere have been largely rebuffed by the federal courts, why have you decided to go after kids?
- Roy Beck: Have you no shame?
America’s Voice — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.
www.americasvoiceonline.org
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