Editorial Boards Across the Country Call on Republicans to Protect Dreamers

While Republicans continue to hold Dreamers’ lives and their futures hostage and use them as a bargaining chip to advance a radical immigration agenda, public support for a permanent solution that allows Dreamers to stay in the country stays strong. By rescinding the DACA program, Donald Trump threw hundreds of thousands of lives into chaos and uncertainty. They deserve immediate action from Congress. It’s time for Republicans to put aside their partisan agenda and pass a bipartisan Dream Act.

 

See what editorial boards across the country have to say:

 

The New York Times: Trump Dangles Hope for Dreamers

 

“It is equally clear that a solution must be a balance between offering many of the undocumented immigrants and their families — and the Dreamers — a way to legalize their presence, and increasing border security.

 

“None of that changes the fact that immigrants, legal and illegal, supply, and have always supplied, America with the talents, skills, diversity and dreams that have made it what it is. The fact that Silicon Valley has so many foreign-born workers is not evidence of native-born Americans having been crowded out of work, but of America’s ability to tap talent from around the world. And with America’s birthrate sagging and baby boomers retiring, immigrant labor will be critical to sustain economic growth. Base nativism must not be allowed to undermine the American dream, or its future.”

 

USA Today: Deportations: The Ugly Reality

 

“Immigration remains at the center of the U.S. budget fight, which was postponed but not resolved by the deal that reopened the federal government late Monday. The drumbeat in the background is the Trump administration's fable that the undocumented represent a major danger to national security. A new Trump re-election campaign ad accuses the Democrats of being ‘complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.’ That bigoted logic appeals to notions of collective guilt and ignores data showing that the foreign-born, legal and not, are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.”

 

Aurora Sentinel: Time for Coffman, Gardner, the rest of the GOP to make good on DACA promises

 

“The battle lines have been drawn. A vast super-majority of Americans and elected Republicans, even notorious anti-immigrant conservatives, have made it clear they want a DACA solution because it’s separate from all other immigration controversy. Like the rest of America, they want a solution because it’s the humane, ethical thing to do. Very soon, Republicans in Congress will be able to demonstrate their honesty and courage on this issue and pass a DACA bill outside of other immigration issues. A super-majority vote can bypass Trump’s sadistic political effort to use DACA children as human collateral for his own gain.”

 

Florida Today: It’s time Congress protects DREAMers and passes DACA

 

“Republicans and Democrats must now reach a consensus to allow these DREAMers to stay. This is a bipartisan issue that many Republicans such as Gov. Rick Scott, who came out in support of DREAMers in a column this week, understand needs to be fixed.

 

“Some have become so fixated on ending illegal immigration they have forgotten we are talking about human beings, some of whom have U.S.-born children who would be left without their parents. Try meeting some of them. More often than not you will see you have a lot in common.”

 

The News-Times (CT): Don’t let down the Dreamers

 

“It is hardhearted to send away these young people, in this country through no fault of their own. It is foolish, because these educated young people in the workforce are contributing to the economy. In Connecticut, the universities appreciate the contributions of these young people and are looking for ways to protect them.”

 

The Roanoke Times: Why rural voters should support more immigration

 

“Here in Virginia, many of our rural communities are losing population — and the demographic imbalance is so lopsided in much of Southwest Virginia that even if no young adults ever moved out, many of those counties would still lose population. That’s because those counties are so old that deaths far outnumber births. Those localities don’t just need a new economy to hold onto their children; they need new people moving in just to stay even. They need immigration. Whether those new residents come from New Jersey or New Delhi is really irrelevant — except the former simply rearranges the population holding up our nation’s demographic pyramid and the latter expands it.”

 

San Antonio Express News: Congress must find a resolution for Dreamers

 

“Because so many DACA recipients live in Texas — an estimated 124,000 — we urge the state’s entire congressional delegation, Democrat and Republican, to lead in crafting a bipartisan solution that provides some path to legal residency for Dreamers and addresses border security concerns.”

 

The Monitor (TX): Congress must find a DACA solution

 

“The words of the senior senator from our state are subtle and nuanced, and dangerous. We hope Cornyn is not trying to stir up American resentment toward these youth — most who had no say in when or where they were brought — at a time when polls show most Americans feel compassion for them. And at a time when there finally seems to be enough momentum to get lawmakers to work on this issue.”

 

The Salt Lake Tribune: Congress will lose support if it doesn’t legislate DACA soon

 

“To no one’s surprise, a recent poll found that most Utahns support some kind of legal status for ‘Dreamers’ – immigrants who enjoyed legal status via the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In Utah, that’s more than 10,500 Dreamers over the past five years who know no other home.”