SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 – Today, we stood with Dreamers outside of the White House as they cried when the news broke that President Trump is repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Then we marched with them to the Department of Justice, chanting "Undocumented, unafraid!"
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns shares the heartache of the approximately 800,000 young people in the DACA program, known as Dreamers, who find themselves without work permits, without protection from deportation, and trapped in the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the U.S. immigration system.
To end the DACA program is to deny the gifts and talents that these young people offer to our communities and to ignore yet again our responsibility for fixing our broken and cruel U.S. immigration system.
Take Action: Urge Congress to Save the Dreamers, Save DACA!
Please ask your members of Congress to vote “YES” on the Dream Act Bill.
From the Justice for Immigrants Campaign: The Dream Act of 2017 was recently introduced in the Senate as a bipartisan effort. It is intended to protect immigrant youth who entered the United States as children and know America as their only home. This bill would grant permanent legal status to more than 1 million young people, including 800,000 young people who received temporary relief from deportation and employment eligibility through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which President Trump plans to repeal in coming months.
The young people the Dream Act of 2017 seeks to protect are contributors to our economy, academic standouts in our universities, and leaders in our parishes and communities. As Catholics, we have long supported the Dreamers as we believe in protecting the dignity of every human being, especially that of our children.
Click HERE to ask your members of Congress to vote "YES" on the Dream Act Bill.
Thank you.
Photo: #DefendDACA Rally at the White House, September 5, 2017, by Keith Ivey.