Some 150 Dreamers from nearly 30 states are hitting congressional offices in Washington today to call on legislators to pass the bipartisan DREAM Act, which would put undocumented immigrant youth on a path to citizenship. The visits come at an incredibly critical time: the Oct. 5 deadline set up by the Trump administration for eligible Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to submit their renewals is just hours away. With lives and futures at stake, immigrant youth hope members of Congress will finally be spurred to act:
When Elizabeth Vilchis of Ridgefield Park was in college, she and some classmates started a tech company that now employs hundreds of part-time workers. Daniella Vieira of Somerset, who was brought to the United States from Brazil when she was 11, now works as a financial analyst for one of the state's largest employers.
They are among about 100 immigrants from 28 states who traveled to Washington on Tuesday to lobby Republican lawmakers to support legislation that would grant legal status to immigrants who are living in the country without authorization and were brought to the United States as children.
The women are supposed to meet with GOP representatives from New Jersey on Wednesday.
“The value of us going down there is sharing our personal stories and to remind them that we are part of their community,’’ Vieira said. “These are people that are your co-workers, your kids’ classmates, your neighbors and your friends, and what are you going to do about it?”
Following Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III’s announcement last month that Trump was ending the program, the administration gave DACA recipients just one month to submit their renewal forms if they had DACA status expiring between September and March 5, 2018. According to the New York Times, more than 150,000 DACA recipients are eligible to reapply, but tens of thousands remain outstanding. And, if United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) does not receive their paperwork by tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 5), eligible DACA recipients will not be able to renew again.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2yZxZ26
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