President Trump’s announcement that he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program wasn’t a surprise. The President campaigned on ending the program and increasing enforcement targeting undocumented immigrants, including those who arrived in the United States as children. The future of the DACA program now rests with the U.S. Congress.
While some members of Congress are tying a renewal of the program to even more enforcement provisions along the border, Hispanic Federation and its allies are calling on Congress to pass a clean Dream act. What is a “clean” Dream Act? A “clean” Dream Act means that Dream is passed without attaching any enforcement measures to it that will harm immigrant families and communities.
As part of its advocacy work on behalf of a clean Dream Act, Hispanic Federation is creating a digital campaign called “Face of Dreamers” that will launch in mid-November. The campaign features Dreamers and their stories to change hearts and minds around the country while mobilizing people to call their Members of Congress to pass the Dream Act. Our campaign will include a Hispanic Federation Congressional phone number that people can use to connect to their Member of Congress. Hispanic Federation will create a digital toolkit to share with our various partners (member organizations, coalition partners, funders, media) so that they can use our images and sample language.
“We are calling on all our partners around the country to mobilize and call on their Members of Congress to pass a clean 2017 Dream Act by December 8th,” said HF’s Director of Immigration Fryda Guedes. “People are under the impression that March 5th is the deadline for DACA, when DACA will start to expire for some DACA beneficiaries without the option to renew. However, if the 2017 Dream Act is passed, it will need to be part of a spending bill that Congress must pass by December 8th to prevent the government from shutting down. We have only a few weeks to send a message to Congress that the Dream Act is the right thing to do for our nation. Hopefully, by putting a face to this issue, we’ll be able to get Congress to act in a way that is fair and humane.”
