Time for Congress to Fulfill the Dream of Our DREAMers

By Tim Canova

The Trump administration today announced its decision to rescind the 2012 Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that has brought hope to more than 800,000 DREAMers and their families. The decision will go into effect in 6 months, effectively starting the clock for Congress to address the issue.

The DREAMers are young people who were brought to the U.S as children, just as my own father came to this country as a two-year old. He later served our country in World War II. Most DREAMers have known only the United States as their home. They had no choice in coming here and they should not be forced to suffer the rest of their lives as a result of the actions of their parents and our broken immigration system. It is unconscionable and un-American to deport them to countries that they neither remember nor recognize, and in many cases don’t even speak the language of their parents’ country of origin.

Congress must act now by passing the bipartisan “DREAM Act of 2017” (S. 1615 & H.R. 3440), introduced by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-NC), and Representatives Lucille Royal-Allard (D-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) — a bill that would offer an immediate path to legalization and eventually citizenship for DACA recipients.

Sadly, my opponent, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has not signed on to this bill as a cosponsor. Even today, as she’s demanding that President Trump take action to protect DREAMers, Wasserman Schultz is silent on her own failure to cosponsor the DREAM Act. Now is the time for new leadership to represent Florida’s 23rd Congressional District!

Even comprehensive immigration reform will not be enough. We must also support democracy and genuine economic development in the countries that are the major source of much of the illegal migration flows to the U.S., particularly neighboring countries in our own hemisphere — many of which are ruled by corrupt oligarchies that provide no opportunity or hope for most of their own people.

According to a report by the Center for American Progress, 78% of Americans — that’s nearly 8 in 10 voters — support allowing DREAMers to keep their legal status and have a pathway to citizenship because they see the contributions DREAMers make in their own communities every day. More than 70% of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies employ DACA recipients, and more than 97% of DREAMers are employed or enrolled in school. They are purchasing homes, buying cars, starting families, and paying their share of taxes. Removing more than 800,000 DREAMers from our workforce would cost our country an estimated $460.3 billion in lower Gross Domestic Product over a decade and tens of millions more in lost contributions to Social Security and Medicare.

America has been renewed and strengthened time and again throughout our history by waves of immigrants who were integrated into our society, and like my own family, worked and sacrificed for our country. We must continue to keep their dreams and the American Dream alive for future generations!

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