SAALT Demands A Clean DREAM Act Without Compromises

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
In response to reports of a deal on DACA made by Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­er­ship and the Pres­i­dent, with rumors of increased bor­der enforce­ment pro­vi­sions includ­ed in that agree­ment, Suman Raghu­nathan, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of South Asian Amer­i­cans Lead­ing Togeth­er (SAALT), a nation­al civ­il rights and racial jus­tice orga­ni­za­tion, released the fol­low­ing state­ment:

“We demand a clean DREAM Act, with­out any com­pro­mis­es on increased bor­der enforce­ment that will neg­a­tive­ly impact immi­grant fam­i­lies. Last week’s cru­el ter­mi­na­tion of DACA by Pres­i­dent Trump is just the lat­est in this administration’s tox­ic anti-immi­grant poli­cies. Over 800,000 lives reduced to bar­gain­ing chips for a more mil­i­ta­rized bor­der is uncon­scionable, unac­cept­able, and un-Amer­i­can. Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­er­ship includ­ing Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nan­cy Pelosi must stand up for DREAM­ers, stand up for our country’s ideals of equal­i­ty and fair­ness for all peo­ple, and stand against this administration’s anti-immi­grant poli­cies.”

“Over 27,000 Asian Amer­i­cans, includ­ing 5,500 Indi­ans and Pak­ista­nis, have already received DACA. An addi­tion­al esti­mat­ed 17,000 indi­vid­u­als from India and 6,000 from Pak­istan respec­tive­ly are eli­gi­ble for DACA, plac­ing India in the top ten coun­tries for DACA eli­gi­bil­i­ty. These fam­i­lies are at risk of depor­ta­tion and must be pro­tect­ed, not with a wall or more armed forces on the bor­der, but with a roadmap to cit­i­zen­ship for aspir­ing new Amer­i­cans.”

“This is a cat­e­go­ry 5 admin­is­tra­tion, threat­en­ing mil­lions of peo­ple who find them­selves in its path, forced to hide under­ground and in the shad­ows for any hope of sur­vival. A cli­mate change of hate is to blame, with anti-immi­grant, anti-Mus­lim poli­cies blus­ter­ing and wreak­ing hav­oc across our nation. Revers­ing this trend, before it’s too late, is the need of the hour, and it must begin with a clean DREAM Act with­out com­pro­mis­es.”

CONTACT: Vivek Trive­di — vivek@saalt.org