The path to a permanent solution for DREAMers is not through radical and far-reaching immigration policy proposals advanced by right-wing extremists. With the February 8 deadline looming, we call for a bipartisan action to be taken that protects undocumented youth, as well as our patients and the communities we serve: We call for the passage of a clean DREAM Act.
As you know, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Chris Coons (D-DE) have introduced a Senate companion bill to a piece of legislations called the “USA Act.” This proposal was first introduced in the House of Representatives by Will Hurd (R-TX) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA).
The “USA Act” would create a pathway to citizenship for millions of people who came to the United States under the age of 18. But this legislation still includes harmful provisions to increase detentions, deportations, and threaten the safety of communities who live, work, study, and call cities near the US-Mexico border, and hundreds of miles away from it, home.
For all of us here today, the path forward is clear. It’s time to dismiss radical and far-reaching immigration policy proposals that only serve only to destabilize and delay a legislative solution for DREAMers whose lives were upended when Donald Trump ended DACA last year. We don’t need a “deal,” that puts politics over people. We need a clean DREAM Act, and we need it now.
A clean DREAM Act is already a bipartisan bill. It has been discussed, studied, and embraced since it was first proposed in 2001. Its popularity is unparalleled. A clean DREAM Act enjoys the support of over 87% of Americans — that’s Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
A clean DREAM Act would create a pathway to citizenship for immigrant youth and solve the immediate crisis without introducing provisions that have not been discussed, studied, or embraced. The members of Congress are free to propose and jostle over whatever they wish. But they should first do their job — the job the American people sent them there to do — and take decisive action to make a clean DREAM Act the law of the land.
Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan can introduce a clean DREAM Act. And Donald Trump can sign it into law immediately. That’s what we need for our hospitals and clinics. That’s what we need for our schools and workplaces. That’s what we need for our churches and communities. That’s what our patients need, and what 87% of Americans — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — agree our country cannot do without. We call on Congress to pass a clean DREAM Act right away.
