The petition to Congress reads:
“Pass clean legislation to reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program with no strings attached and block all right-wing attempts to use DACA as a bargaining chip to insert legislative poison pills to expand immigration enforcement, wall off our borders, or ramp-up attacks on other immigrants and refugees.”
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The white supremacist in chief just struck again. Donald Trump killed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and put more than 800,000 immigrants at risk of deportation.1
DACA gave immigrants who came to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, the ability to obtain driver’s licenses and work permits and live safely in the only country many of them have ever known. President Obama created DACA after thousands of undocumented young people took the risk to come out of the shadows and fight for protected status.
Trump knows that ending DACA is cruel and unpopular. He was too cowardly to make the announcement himself and has now put Dreamers’ fate in Congress’ hands. Republicans in Congress have had a bigoted, anti-immigrant agenda for years. And Trump premised his entire administration on a racist war on immigrants. Now, Trump and his racist party want to use Dreamers as a bargaining chip to advance their hateful agenda and put other immigrants at risk. Now more than ever, we must stand with our allies in the immigrant rights movement and make our demands crystal clear: No trade-offs. No compromises.
Democrats and Republicans of good conscience must pass clean legislation to reinstate DACA with no strings attached. They must also stop right-wing extremists from using Dreamers as a bargaining chip and inserting legislative poison pills to expand immigration enforcement, build Trump’s wall or shut down our borders. Can you add your name?
When Trump set his anti-immigrant agenda in motion, he said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would focus on removing dangerous criminals from the country and told DACA beneficiaries that they could “rest easy.” Trump was lying. His rogue deportation force has targeted and attacked all immigrants since day one of his racist regime. Going after Dreamers is just another way to advance his white supremacist agenda and terrorize immigrant communities.
Racist, anti-immigrant attorneys general from 10 states threatened to sue the Department of Justice if it did not end DACA by Sept. 5.2 Their threats gave Trump license to kill the program. Trump says he admires Dreamers, but he is a coward and a liar. His attempt to shift the burden to Congress and give them six months to act is nothing more than a desperate attempt to appear compassionate and use Dreamers as political cover to advance his reckless and dangerous anti-immigrant agenda. Trump is now planning to phase out DACA, saying that current DACA beneficiaries will not be impacted until March 2018. But we cannot trust him to keep his word. To protect Dreamers, Congress must take bold action immediately.
Democrats and Republicans have already introduced the 2017 DREAM Act and The American Hope Act, sister bills that would restore and expand DACA.3 If Congress passes the 2017 DREAM Act as-is, with no amendments, it would:
Dreamers embody the spirit of the United States in a way that small minded xenophobic Republicans like Trump will never understand. They came to the United States with parents who made the courageous and extremely difficult decision to leave their families, communities and countries of birth behind in the hopes of building better lives. Some families are displaced by war, others by climate change or corporate greed. All are seeking refuge, freedom from persecution and better economic opportunities for their families. There is nothing more American than that. Trump’s attacks on immigrants are attacks on the very fabric of our nation. We must push Congress to act now.
Government funding is set to expire at the end of September, and Trump has threatened to shut down the government if Congress does not approve funding for his southern border wall in a broader must-pass government funding bill.4 Our activism pushed Senate Democrats to block funding for Trump’s wall before. Together, we can do it again. That is why CREDO is teaming up with our friends at United We Dream to make sure Democrats and Republicans of good conscience advance strong legislation to reinstate and expand DACA and stop anti-immigrant Republicans from leveraging the program to ramp-up immigration enforcement or wall off our borders.
Restoring DACA will not protect all immigrants from Trump’s hate, but it would bring us one step closer to reaching that goal. Can you help us make sure Congress takes a stand for Dreamers and does not use them as bargaining chips?
Tell Congress: Immediately restore and expand DACA by passing clean legislation without any poison pills from the extreme right wing. Click the link below to sign the petition.
- Nicole Regalado
CREDO Action from Working Assets
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