Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and allies are occupying the congressional offices of Republicans and Democrats this week because of one reason: their lives are on the line. Already, 12,000 DACA recipients have fallen out of status since Donald Trump announced the end of the program in September. This is an emergency, and we must keep repeating it until we’re blue in the face. Instead, Republican leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn are suggesting Congress kick the can to next month, or even Trump’s arbitrary March 5 deadline. But as Vox’s Dara Lind writes, “Republicans are misleading everyone—including themselves—about how long they have to fix DACA”:
DACA protections can’t just be extended on a whim. They have to be renewed every two years — and the renewal process takes time. Because of the way the administration has implemented the end of DACA, thousands of immigrants already lost their DACA protections even before the March 5 “deadline.”
The Trump administration can’t just extend the March 5 deadline by saying it has extended it. It would have to direct US Citizenship and Immigration Services to start allowing immigrants whose DACA is set to expire this spring to renew their work permits. Given that even under normal circumstances it took about 90 days for the government to process DACA applications, the administration would have to announce that ASAP — and even then, it’s entirely likely that some immigrants would end up with a gap in their protection.
Every day that legislators refuse to act on the DREAM Act, 122 DACA recipients lose their work permits, driver’s licenses, and become vulnerable to deportation. Starting in March 2018, that number could skyrocket to as high as 1,700 daily. While it’s Republicans who control Congress, Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. McConnell need Democrats to pass the funding bill. Democrats wield leverage here to get the DREAM Act passed as part of the package and should be holding the line. Some, including Sens. Cory Booker, Richard Durbin, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mazie Hirono, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and dozens of House Democrats, are. But according to The Washington Post, other Democrats are wavering when we need them standing strong with immigrant youth most.
“With a deadline of midnight Friday to pass spending legislation,” The Post reports, “dozens of Democrats had vowed to withhold support if Republicans refused to allow a vote on a measure, known as the Dream Act, that would allow roughly 1.2 million immigrants to stay legally in the United States. But a group of vulnerable Democratic senators facing re-election in conservative states next year aren’t willing to go that far—meaning the party is unlikely to muster the votes to block the spending bill”:
“We’ve got to get it done, but I’m not drawing a line in the sand that it has to be this week versus two weeks from now,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who faces reelection next year in a state that Trump won by more than 18 points. Other Democrats facing similar head winds echoed that sentiment, including Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.). Trump won those states by 42 and 19 percentage points, respectively.
For many allies, a promise broken to a Dreamer is a promise broken to them. So are Democratic legislators really going to break the promises they made to undocumented immigrant youth that the DREAM Act would come this Christmas? Because it’s sounding like it:
“I had [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi tell me to my face that she would get this done by the end of the year,” said Adrian Reyna, 26, an immigrant who arrived from Mexico at age 11 and whose work permit expires in May. Reyna is the membership director of United We Dream, the youth-led immigrant organization organizing protests.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Reyna said, “looked into the eyes of our members and said he’s committed to getting this done. They cannot just tell us they are going to do something and then just drop out.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is seeking a second term in a state that is home to about 13,000 DACA recipients—and hundreds of thousands of federal employees whose livelihoods are at risk during government shutdowns.
“I will exercise every bit of leverage I can for the Dream Act, but if there is a vote that would lead to a shutdown, that’s where I draw the line,” he said.
California’s junior senator, Kamala Harris, has repeatedly voiced her position that she will not vote for the spending package unless the DREAM Act is attached. “As far as I’m concerned,” she tweeted yesterday, “we need to pass the DREAM Act before the end of the year. Not in January. Not February. Not March. Now.” With the state being home to the largest population of DACA recipients in the nation—200,000 young immigrants live, work, and study in California—using any and all means to protect them shouldn’t even be up for a debate. The state’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, should have set the lead. But she didn’t:
Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is seeking her fifth full term next year in a deep-blue state with the largest number of DACA recipients in the nation, isn’t willing to pick the fight.
As Tom Jawetz, vice president of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress wrote, ”if Congress members go home for the holidays having passed another spending bill without permanent protections for Dreamers, it will have appropriated funds that will be used to deport Dreamers, plain and simple.” That includes both Republicans and Democrats. Even though dozens of Congressional Republicans support a DACA fix, it’s been an uphill battle getting them onboard. Democratic support should be a given, in particular considering how many pledged to stand up for immigrants in the wake of Trump’s win. Here’s their chance to show they mean it. Of course, this fight is in no way over yet. United We Dream and allies continue to be out in full-force in Washington, D.C., and their efforts have already pushed seven senators and 36 House members to come out publicly committing to vote “no” on the spending bill if the DREAM Act is not attached, and they’re still pushing more. We need to do our part as well.