Durbin, Lugar Ask Secretary Napolitano to Stop Deportations of Dream Act Students
Last week, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, asking her to halt deportations of immigrant students who could earn legal status under legislation they have introduced called the DREAM Act (S.729). The DREAM Act is a narrowly tailored, bipartisan measure which would permit undocumented students to become permanent legal residents if they came here as children, are long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character, and attend college or enlist in the military for at least two years. The DREAM Act would allow a generation of immigrant students with great potential and ambitions to contribute more fully to our society.
The Obama Administration supports the DREAM Act but until the bill passes DREAM Act students are subject to deportation. DHS could temporarily stop deportations of DREAM Act students by granting them “deferred action.” DHS has said that they will focus immigration enforcement on “the worst of the worst,” which clearly does not include DREAM Act students.
“We greatly appreciate your support for the DREAM Act. However, pending enactment, individuals who would be eligible for the DREAM Act are subject to removal, and such cases are currently handled on an ad hoc basis,” the Senators wrote. “Deferred action for DREAM Act students would conserve limited enforcement resources. You’ve said yourself ‘Smart immigration policy balances strong enforcement practices with common-sense, practical solutions to complicated issues.’ The situation of DREAM Act students is just such a complicated issue which requires the common-sense, practical solution of deferred action.”
Deferred action for DREAM Act students would not apply to a large number of individuals. Over the last several years, only a small number of DREAM Act students have been placed in removal proceedings. There is also a recent precedent for deferred action for DREAM Act students. In June 2009, DHS granted deferred action to widows of U.S. citizens who were married for less than two years prior to their spouses’ death.
The DREAM Act is supported by a broad coalition of education, labor, civil rights and religious leaders from across the political spectrum and around the country, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Center for Community Change, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the National Education Association, the National Immigration Law Center, People for the American Way, the Service Employees International Union, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
KJ