Immigrant Youth and Allies Call on House Democrats to Lead Because “Our Lives and the Morals of This Country Are at Stake”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 8, 2018

CONTACT
National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
Email: [email protected]
Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-384-1279

Indivisible Project
Contact: [email protected]

United We Dream
Bruna Bouhid, [email protected], 202-850-0812
Sheridan Aguirre, [email protected], 202-793-226

Immigrant Youth and Allies Call on House Democrats to Lead Because “Our Lives and the Morals of This Country Are at Stake”

WASHINGTON — After months of hearing from millions of Americans in support of a permanent solution for Dreamers, Congress today is considering a two-year budget deal that does not address the crisis created when President Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in September.

Lawmakers have repeatedly vowed to find a permanent solution to end the uncertainty and instability created by the Trump administration’s termination of DACA but have failed to exert the sustained political will to deliver. This squandered opportunity is not only another failure to deliver on their word, it’s a choice to be complicit in the detention and deportation of Dreamers. Any member of Congress who votes for a budget deal without securing protections for immigrant youth — Republicans and Democrats alike — will be voting to advance Trump’s white supremacist agenda. We will not forget.

For more than a year, President Trump and his administration have waged an attack on immigrants, refugees and communities of color. Immigrant youth and immigrant families, despite the excruciating uncertainty of these trying times, are leading a courageous fight to assert our communities’ humanity, dignity, and power, and our rightful claim to be acknowledged for our contributions and feel secure at home. We need leaders in Congress to act with courage, too.

Speeches, photo ops, and gestures won’t cut it. We urgently need a narrowly-tailored solution that addresses the crisis Trump created, without putting families at risk or reducing people’s lives to a bargaining chip. We need the bipartisan Dream Act now.

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