For our inaugural Deep Dive event, MWEG hosted two communications professionals from FWD.us to talk about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — and how to advocate for it. FWD.us is a bipartisan organization working to fix the failed immigration and criminal justice systems that have locked too many out of the American dream for too long.
In their presentation, Leezia Dhalia, immigration press director, and Alexis Sosa, communications fellow, shared the facts about DACA and why defending it is important. Leezia is a DACA recipient herself, having been brought to the U.S. from Canada as a pre-teen.
DACA protects 750,000 young immigrants — Dreamers — who have arrived illegally on U.S. soil as minors brought by their parents. Through DACA, Dreamers have legal status. They are permitted to work and are protected from deportation to countries they left as children and often have little or no memory of.
They have a chance at the American dream.
“In high school, when my friends started driving and they got their licenses, I wasn’t able to do that, because I didn’t have the right papers. When I finally got DACA (in 2014), I was able to get a license, get a picture ID, get a car, get a job.” — Samantha, Texas
DACA was recently in the news when the Supreme Court disallowed the Trump administration’s attempts to shut it down. Unfortunately, the case determined whether the administration followed correct procedures to close it, not the legality of the program itself. That leaves the door open for them to redo the shut-down process and potentially terminate DACA for good.
Losing DACA means 750,000 Dreamers would suddenly be undocumented again — and targeted for deportation.
“We’re creating all these memories here together, but then I remember it may all be over.” — Edison, father of two U.S. citizens, Utah
Keeping families together is one important advocacy goal. Many families are of mixed status. For example, mom and daughter have green cards, two younger sons are U.S. citizens because they were born here, and dad is undocumented. Also, some 256,000 Dreamers are parents of U.S. citizen children.
DACA recipients are also today’s heroes. Approximately one-third are essential workers in healthcare, education, and the food industries. Dreamers include physicians, nurses, teachers, grocery store employees, and more. With this pandemic, they are putting their lives on the line to take care of U.S. citizens, knowing their own status is uncertain.
Dreamers have a huge impact on the economy. In addition to the moral consequences, the cost of removing DACA recipients would be upwards of $21 billion. Plus, the $5.7 billion of federal taxes they pay would disappear. And the $42 billion of annual GDP they contribute would be lost. Dreamers are economic multipliers helping to grow the U.S. economy.
How can we advocate for the DACA program? One way, our Deep Dive speakers taught, is through developing and placing op-ed opinion pieces in local and regional newspapers.
Listen to their full presentation in the MWEG portal for the tutorial. And get busy!
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