FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2020
PRESS CONTACT: Alia El-Assar | aelassar@americanbic.biz
ABIC Statement on DHS Memo Outlining Rescission of DACA, in Defiance of Supreme Court Decision
(Chicago, IL) – Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo drastically stripping protections provided under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which has allowed 650,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to lawfully work and live in the country they call home.
Per the DHS memo, USCIS will reject all pending and future initial requests for DACA and associated Employment Authorization Documents, and DACA renewal periods will be shortened from two-years to one-year, effective immediately. The memo also instructs USCIS to reject all pending and future applications for advance parole, absent exceptional circumstances.
This latest attack on the DACA Program comes just six weeks after the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling rejecting the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA as “arbitrary and capricious”, and two weeks after a Federal Court in Maryland ordered USCIS to immediately begin processing new initial applications.
Rescinding protections for Dreamers is morally wrong, economically harmful, and politically foolish. Annually, DACA-eligible residents contribute over $19 billion in spending power and $6 billion in taxes to our economy. Additionally, a majority of Republicans and Trump voters believe that Dreamers should be protected according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, including 68 percent of Republicans, 71 percent of conservatives, and 69 percent of those who voted for Trump in 2016 when he promised to deport Dreamers.
With an estimated 542,000 of all DACA-eligible youth working in jobs essential to pandemic response, including 29,000 DACA healthcare workers, we urge President Trump to follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision and call on Congress to immediately safeguard the DACA-eligible population critical to our nation’s ability to recover and rebuild post-COVID by including an extension of work authorization for DACA recipients in the next federal coronavirus stimulus bill as we work towards long-term, permanent solutions such as H.R. 6: American Dream and Promise Act.
The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) promotes commonsense immigration reform that advances economic competitiveness, provides American companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs and citizens.