tags: , , , AVEF, Press Releases

What Do Gov. Scott, Kent Fuchs, and a FL DACA Beneficiary Agree on? Protections for Dreamers

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Tallahassee, FL – While President Donald Trump, his cabinet of racists, and Republican congressional leadership work to torpedo Dreamer legislation, new op-eds from Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) and University of Florida president Ken Fuchs and Mariana Castro, a local Dreamer and UF student, show where Floridians and Americans stand: with Dreamers.

As Governor Scott notes:

The United States has become the home for [Dreamers] — and this should absolutely not be a partisan issue, or even a political issue….It’s time to stop trying to make this complicated. It’s also time for the folks in Washington to stop talking about “comprehensive” immigration reform. Washington struggles to do anything right, let alone to do something comprehensively right. Whenever they talk about a “comprehensive” anything in Washington, one thing you know for certain — nothing will get done.

Governor Scott hits the nail on the head when he says this should not be a partisan issue.As a recent Quinnipiac poll shows, Republicans and Democrats alike support the Dream Act, with 86% of Americans, including 76% of Republicans, wanting Dreamers to stay in America. The results from poll after poll are remarkably consistent. For example, December 2017 polls from CNN, Marist, and CBS News, as well as an earlier Quinnipiac poll in December, each found that between 81% and 84% of the public, including between 67% and 74% of Republican respondents, backed efforts to keep Dreamers here in America and gain legal status.

Politics aside, the Dream Act will allow the 117,000 Dream Act-eligible Floridians to live without fear, provide for their families, and contributed back to our state and shared nation.

As Mariana explains in her joint op-ed with UF president Fuchs:

I don’t just feel American, I am American. Undocumented youth celebrate this country’s victories. We identify with this culture. This is our home. We are embedded in America’s fabric and, the truth is, we are here to stay. While I have 650 days left of protection, many do not. Those whose status has expired face going back to a country they no longer call home.

President Fuchs adds:

Many years have been invested in Mariana’s education and the education of other young people like her, and deporting them represents a major loss of unrealized human potential and benefit for our local communities, states and nation. Such an action also contradicts America’s stature as a nation that gains its strength from its faith in all people, including those not necessarily born on its shores but who show every sign of contributing to its success and prosperity… We urge our elected officials to allow them to continue pursuing their dreams here in America.

Governor Rick Scott would be wise to take his newfound support for immigrant communities in Florida to the next level by thwarting HB 9, a Republican proposal in the Florida Legislature that would transform Florida into one of the most unwelcoming states in the country and threaten its rich tourism and agricultural economies.

Read Governor Rick Scott’s op-ed in its entirety online here. Read UF president Fuchs and Mariana Castro’s joint op-ed in its entirety online here.