UnidosUS Urges Congress to Hold Votes on DACA

 

Washington, DC—Today, UnidosUS (formerly NCLR), the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, renewed its calls for Congress to find a permanent legislative solution for DREAMers, even as a federal district court judge heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by the Texas Attorney General in May that aims to destroy the American dreams of 700,000 beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on the false grounds that it hurts states financially:

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” said UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía, who pointed out that “many economists estimate that without the DREAMers—the vast majority of whom are hard-working, tax-paying, American-grown doctors, engineers, students and educators—the United States would lose a whopping $433.4 billion over the next decade—and, ironically, Texas would be among the states hurt most.”

That’s a high price to pay for a trumped-up immigration crisis that exists largely in the president’s mind. Worse still, his made-up conflict could have countless human casualties if DREAMers are deported to countries they barely know.

“That’s unacceptable,” she said.

Earlier this summer, a group of legislators in the House nearly forced a vote on two bipartisan bills that could have resolved this needless crisis and brought relief to those immigrant youths, who just want to remain in the only country they’ve ever called home. And, nearly four-fifths of Americans back the youths, according to Fox Polls.

“It’s not too late for Congress to do right by the DREAMers and the country,” Murguía said. “Whatever happens in the courts, our representatives have an obligation to fix this man-made mess.”