One of my first
actions when I was in the House of Representatives was to sign on as an
original cosponsor of the Dream Act, which would create a pathway to
legal status and citizenship for Dreamers who pursue higher education
or serve our Nation in uniform. This commonsense, compassionate, and
responsible policy is long overdue for a generation of young Americans. Since President Trump made the heartless decision to end DACA, I have
held his administration accountable for their mishandling of renewal
applications for DACA recipients. My office has assisted Dreamers in
New Mexico through the DACA renewal process and is actively
participating in meetings with communities and local advocacy groups
throughout the State. I introduced legislation to safeguard Dreamers' private information,
such as addresses and telephone numbers, so the Trump administration
can't use those to target them or their families for deportation. When my office learned that the Department of Homeland Security had
arbitrarily rejected hundreds of renewal applications that arrived late
because they were delayed by the Postal Service, I pressed the
administration to take immediate action to reverse its decision. I am
pleased to say that Dreamers whose applications were rejected due to
Postal Service delays were allowed to resubmit their renewals for DACA. In fact, just last week, the first two DACA recipients in New Mexico,
who brought this to my attention with the help of Catholic Charities,
were told that they could move forward with their DACA renewal
applications. President Trump's decision means that until Congress passes the Dream
Act, these young members of our communities still face deep uncertainty
about whether they will be able to stay in school, keep working and
contributing to our economy, and remain in the Nation that they call
home. Congress must pass the Dream Act now. Threatening to deport these
young people who grew up in America and want to contribute to their
Nation will not fix our broken immigration system. Making the American
people foot the bill to build an unnecessary and wasteful border wall--
which families in New Mexico's border communities have told me they do
not want nor do they need--will not fix our broken immigration system. President Trump and congressional Republicans wasted an entire year
trying to take away American's healthcare and then rushing through tax
breaks for the superwealthy in the final weeks of the year. By
squandering an entire year, they pushed Dreamers aside and put their
lives in jeopardy.
Keywords matched
immigration border wall DACA deportation