Washington, D.C. — In response to reports that Senate Republicans who met with President Donald Trump today reached a deal to not consider the Dream Act as part of the upcoming spending bill, Tom Jawetz, vice president of Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
When President Trump decided to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, jeopardizing the lives and futures of nearly 800,000 young people, he took responsibility for the consequences. While the president and the congressional majority may think they have all the time in the world to work on this, 22,000 DACA recipients will be losing protection over the next four months. This will make them subject to detention and deportation, push them out of the workforce, prevent them from renewing their driver’s licenses, and bar many from enrolling in college for the spring semester. We say we need the #DreamActNow because we need the Dream Act now, and further delay is unacceptable.
According to CAP, passing the Dream Act and placing all the potentially eligible workers on a path to legal status would add a total of at least $281 billion to U.S. gross domestic product cumulatively over a decade and as much as $1 trillion over the same time period.
Related resources:
- The Economic Benefits of Passing the Dream Act by Francesc Ortega, Ryan Edwards, and Philip E. Wolgin
- The State-by-State Economic Benefits of Passing the Dream Act by Ryan D. Edwards, Francesc Ortega, and Philip E. Wolgin
- Interactive Map: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Populations and their Economic Contributions by U.S. Congressional District by Center for American Progress and USC Dornsife Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (USC Dornsife)
- A New Threat to DACA Could Cost States Billions of Dollars by Nicole Prchal Svajlenka, Tom Jawetz, and Angie Bautista-Chavez
- DACA Recipients’ Economic and Educational Gains Continue to Grow by Tom K. Wong, Greisa Martinez Rosas, Adam Luna, Henry Manning, Adrian Reyes, Patrick O’Shea, Tom Jawetz, and Philip E. Wolgin
- The Impact of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program Repeal on Jobs by the Center for American Progress and FWD.us (FWD.us)
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Rafael J. Medina at [email protected] or 202.748.5313.