Campaign Action
More than 100 major companies are calling for permanent protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, writing in a letter to congressional leaders that “these are our friends, neighbors, and coworkers, and they should not have to wait for court cases to be decided to determine their fate when Congress can act now.”
In a major loss to the Trump administration, the Supreme Court recently declined to hear a lawsuit over the program this term, meaning that DACA protections for former and current beneficiaries could be safe until the early part of next year. But that doesn’t relieve the uneasiness for immigrant youth and their families.
“Everything is here, and we’d have to go back to a place we don’t even remember,” said DACA recipient Bella Rincon, who, along with her business partner, fellow DACA beneficiary Steven Gonzalez, opened a coffee shop in Clearwater, Florida. “We want to push forward and live our dream,” she continued.
There is massive bipartisan support for protecting young immigrants like Bella and Steven—and that protection should not be traded for White House aide Stephen Miller’s anti-immigrant proposals attacking vulnerable asylum-seekers or Donald Trump’s useless, stupid, and expensive border wall with Mexico.
"We have seen time and again that the overwhelming majority of Americans of all political backgrounds agree that we should protect Dreamers from deportation," the letter from business leaders continues. "American employers and hundreds of thousands of Dreamers are counting on you to pass bipartisan, permanent legislative protection for Dreamers without further delay."
“We consider ourselves American even though the paper work doesn’t say that,’’ Gonzalez added. “It’s all we know.”