In a display of bipartisan support, two dozen local and state elected officials signed onto a letter that urges Congress to protect Border Dreamers without further militarizing our communities.
That letter is posted below.
Dear Members of Congress:
As local and state elected officials in the San Diego border region, we write to express the urgent need for Congress to pass a clean, bipartisan DREAM Act without using their parents and loved ones as bargaining chips for wasteful and unnecessary border militarization.
The President’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program on September 5th has grave consequences for our region. Nearly half of all Dreamers live in states along the US Southern Border (CA, AZ, NM, TX), and there are 38,000 Dreamers in San Diego County alone. These individuals are a vital part of the diverse, vibrant community we have here in San Diego County — they are our neighbors, classmates, coworkers, members of our faith communities, business owners, and more.
DACA recipients and their families contribute significantly to the cultural and economic well-being of our region. In, the five congressional districts that are in San Diego County, DACA recipients currently contribute $877,400,000 in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Terminating DACA means that those individuals will either no longer be in the workforce, or they won’t be able to contribute economically at the same level as they did when they had a work permit.
The DACA program gave young people a chance to more fully participate in our society, provide more for their families economically, and protected families from being separated by cruel deportations.
Our proximity to the border means that we live in a highly militarized area with large presence of immigration officials, where individuals are already at a greater risk of coming into contact with abusive, corrupt and unaccountable agents. Now, with the termination of DACA, these young people are at a severe risk of deportation and family separation.
Passing the DREAM Act will certainly help eliminate this risk, but it cannot be done in exchange for increasing border militarization. That would mean exposing the parents and family members of DACA recipients to the Administration’s already massive deportation machine in the region. This is why we need to pass a clean, bipartisan DREAM Act — adding on any provision that would harm the family members of DACA recipients goes against our values of treating all our residents with dignity and respect.
There is no doubt in our minds that our region will suffer tremendously from the unfair termination of the DACA program. We urge you to pass a clean, bipartisan DREAM Act now.
Sincerely,
Patricia Aguilar, Councilmember, City of Chula Vista
David Alvarez, Councilmember, City of San Diego
David Arambula,Councilmember, City of Lemon Grove
Richard Barrera, Board President, San Diego Unified School District
Catherine Blakespear, Mayor, City of Encinitas
Barbara Bry, Councilmember, City of San Diego
Myrtle Cole, Council President, City of San Diego
Todd Gloria, Assemblymember, California Assembly District 78
Georgette Gómez, Councilmember, City of San Diego
Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Assemblymember, California Assembly District 80
Stephen Houlahan, Councilmember, City of Santee
Tasha Boerner Horvath, Councilmember, City of Encinitas
Ben Hueso, Senator, California Senate District 40
Tony Kranz, Deputy Mayor, City of Encinitas
Albert Mendivil, Vice Mayor, City of National City
Jennifer Mendoza, Councilmember, City of Lemon Grove
Steve Padilla, Councilmember, City of National City
Colin Parent, Councilmember, City of La Mesa
Mona Rios, Councilmember, City of National City
Mary Casillas Salas, Mayor, City of Chula Vista
Nicholas Segura, Board Member, Sweetwater Union High School District
Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, Councilmember, City of National City
Cipriano Vargas, Trustee, Vista Unified School District
Chris Ward, Councilmember, City of San Diego
Mark West, Councilmember, City of Imperial Beach
Dwight Worden, Deputy Mayor, City of Del Mar
David Zito, Councilmember, City of Solana Beach
1 Migration Policy Institute. (2016). [Interactive Map on DACA-Eligible Populations by State and County, 2016]. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Data Tools. Retrieved from: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca-profiles
2 USC Dornsife Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. (2017). Interactive Map: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Populations and their Economic Contributions by U.S. Congressional District. Retrieved from: http://dornsife.usc.edu/csii/daca-map/
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