Campaign Action
As Congressional leaders plan to meet with Donald Trump at the White House this week, 11 Democratic women from the Senate, led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, have signed a letter urging Mitch McConnell to pass the bipartisan DREAM Act by December. Fifty-three percent of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are women, and many are mothers and breadwinners for their families. If Congress fails to protect them and other DREAM Act-eligible immigrants, entire families will be at risk. “The futures of these mothers and their U.S. citizen children have been thrown into uncertainty,” the letter states. “If Congress does not act to protect them, hundreds of thousands of women will lose their status and face deportation”:
The effects of deportation have a lasting impact on immigrant families. When a parent is deported, it leaves the other with the responsibility of raising a family as a single parent—likely on a single income. If both parents are deported, their children may end up in foster care. Dreamer parents deserve to raise their children with dignity and without the threat of deportation.
Through the DACA program, immigrant women have been able to secure jobs and educational opportunities that allow them to provide for themselves and their families. In fact, over 90 percent of DACA recipients are currently employed and approximately 70 percent were able to get better paying jobs through their DACA status. Without the Dream Act, women will face extreme difficulty making ends meet for their families.
Women deserve to feel safe and be protected, regardless of immigration status. Taking away DACA protections places survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault at risk of further exploitation. There is already increasing fear among immigrant survivors to report these crimes. In fact, nearly 43 percent of legal advocates said they had personally worked with a domestic violence or sexual assault survivor who dropped a civil or criminal case because they were too scared of potential immigration enforcement actions to continue.
Thousands of DACA recipients have already lost their work permits and protection from deportation, and as former American Immigration Lawyers Association president David Leopold recently wrote, “unless Congress acts on Dreamer legislation ASAP, Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will transform the year-end spending bill into an edict to deport Dreamers. Just ask Felipe Abonza-Lopez, Rosa Maria Hernandez, Daniel Ramirez, Riccy Enriquez Perdomo, and all the other Dreamers with firsthand experience.”
“If we do not act now to pass the Dream Act,” the letter continues, “thousands of Dreamer mothers and their families will face separation”:
The experience of Riccy Enriquez Perdomo, a DACA recipient and mother of two small children, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this summer despite having DACA protection, is just one example of what could happen across the country if Congress fails to pass the Dream Act. Riccy was detained for seven days and shuffled to five different detention facilities during that time. Her family was unable to see her or even get accurate information on where she was being held. ICE had already prepared travel documents for her to be sent to Honduras before acknowledging their mistake. Riccy’s experience and the painful uncertainty her family faced will be repeated thousands of times across the country if we do not take action.
Passing legislation to protect undocumented immigrant youth should be a no-brainer for Congress—nearly 90 percent of Americans support letting them stay here. Some Republican legislators have suggested waiting until March to pass a bill, but this is just kicking the can down the road at the expense of the thousands of DACA recipients who will lose their status through then. To highlight the urgency, United We Dream, the largest undocumented youth-led organization in the nation, has kicked off a campaign asking DACA recipients how many days they have left until their DACA runs out. Some are losing their protections in 310 days. Others, in possibly 35:
“March 18th, 2019,” wrote Twitter user King_Midaz. “480 days until I lose the job I've always wanted and 480 days when I'll be a target for deportation. Despite the fact that I went to college, made something of myself, and contribute to the country I call home. My heart is heavy for all the other DREAMers.”
”Dreamers should not be threatened with detention and deportation,” the letter, also signed by Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), concludes. “Immigrant women contribute so much to our society and we cannot let them down. Congress should immediately consider legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers. There is absolutely no doubt that America will benefit from passage of the Dream Act, and too much is at stake not to act. We urge you to bring this legislation to the Senate floor for consideration as soon as possible.” We need the DREAM Act, and we need it now.