Take Action to Defend Undocumented Childhood Immigrants with the Dream Act: Federation of Christian Ministries

Federation of Christian Ministries This month’s topic for Justice and Peace action Defend Undocumented Childhood Immigrants with the DREAM Act Given the values which the Federation of Christian Ministries hold, we the Circle of Directors, believe we must speak out concerning the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals otherwise known as DACA. The outcome for the Dreamers is a moral issue facing the United States of America. We believe the outcome, which has been placed in the hands of Congress, must allow the 800,000 Dreamers to remain in this country. Here is some brief background:

On September 5th, the Trump Administration announced it would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that grants protected status to undocumented immigrant children brought into the US by parents or other adults (DREAMERS.) The program will no longer accept new applications effective immediately, and will only grant current DACA recipient status renewals for the next 6 months, completely terminating the program on March 5th, 2018. Eliminating DACA will ultimately deprive 800,000 people, currently protected by the program, of jobs, homes, and access to education, and put them at risk of deportation. Rescinding DACA will also damage our economy, reducing GDP by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. Furthermore, an April 2017 poll found over 75% of registered voters across party lines supported allowing DACA recipients to remain in the US, while over half supported DACA recipients ultimately earning citizenship. Recently, in the Senate, the DREAM Act (S. 1615) was introduced, a bipartisan bill which would grant legal status and a path to citizenship for DACA participants. Members of the House introduced a slightly more generous bill, the American Hope Act (H.R. 3591), which would also grant DACA recipients conditional legal status. Congress must quickly move to support and pass a legislative solution to protect our Dreamers! Contact your members of Congress in support of DREAMERS! Need to find your members of Congress? Here are tools you can use: Find your Senator: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm Find your Representative in the House: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ Here is a potential script for you to use when calling: Hi, my name is _______ I am a constituent of _ (your location)_ and I am calling Senator/Representative _________ to urge him/her to take immediate action to pass legislation that will save the intent of DACA and allow the 800,000 Dreamers to be given protected legal status and allowed to stay in our country with a path to citizenship. I expect you as my leader to act quickly. Thank you. Each month, FCM’s Justice and Peace Committee will highlight a topic for your attention and action in support of the values held by FCM. We want to help your voice be heard, and will often provide simple tools you might find useful to that end. We hope this will make it easy for you to participate. Let your light shine and give light to those in the darkness!