Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand with the DREAMers, both those
living throughout the great San Joaquin Valley whom I have the honor
and the privilege to represent, as well as those across the entire
United States. We in the valley--as we like to say--and throughout our
Nation are, let us remember, a nation of immigrants, past and present. So we know the integral role, both historically and today, that
immigrants have played throughout the great history of our Nation in
terms of the development of our economy and our communities. The
contributions that have been made are the story of America. And our
DREAMers, these young immigrants, also make immense contributions, and
their story is a part of America's story. It is estimated that roughly 685,000 of our Nation's workers, our
DREAMers, with protections through the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals, or DACA, program, that if we, in fact, remove them as some
are maybe suggesting, it would impact over $460 billion to our Nation's
economy, to our GDP. Think about that. In my home State of California, it is estimated that there are over
193,000 DREAMers who are currently legal, who are working and
contributing with these DACA protections, and that removing them from
the workforce in California would cost an estimated $11.6 billion to
the GDP of California. Does this make any sense? No.
Keywords matched
DACA immigrants