Business Leaders, Faith Leaders, Locally-Elected Officials and Community Stakeholders Urge Congress to Protect DACA Recipients from Deportation

WASHINGTON, DC – A coalition of more than 250 business leaders, education leaders, faith leaders, local-elected officials and community stakeholders from 13 states are calling on federal lawmakers to pass permanent protections for Dreamers before the end of the year. In letters to the federally-elected officials in their states, they write:

“Dreamers make our communities stronger every day, but they are in urgent need of a permanent legislative solution that will protect them from becoming targets for deportation, ripped from their families and needlessly kicked out of the workforce. Beyond the devastating moral consequences, deporting hardworking young individuals is a waste of taxpayer dollars that would cost the U.S. economy $460 billion in lost GDP and $24.6 billion in lost Social Security and Medicare tax contributions. An overwhelming majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle agree that we should protect Dreamers from deportation.

“Congress has the opportunity to show genuine leadership in passing a permanent legislative solution to protect Dreamers. We urge you to do right by these hard working young people, who are American in every way but on paper, and pass legislation before you leave town for the holidays.”

Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Washington received letters signed by business leaders, education leaders, faith leaders, locally-elected officials and community stakeholders in their state on Tuesday. Signers include individuals such as Tampa Bay Technology Forum Executive Director James Scott, HQ Raleigh Founder Christopher Gergen, Xavier University President Robert Gervasi, Arizona Technology Council CEO Steven Zylstra, Michigan Venture Capital Association President Maureen Miller-Brosnan and Tune.com CEO Peter Hamilton, among many others.

The letters come just weeks after more than 600 of the country’s largest companies and business associations joined forces to launch the Coalition for the American Dream. The Coalition, which calls on Congress to pass “bipartisan legislation that gives Dreamers a permanent solution the calendar year 2017,” includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Marriott, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, The Coca-Cola Company, Best Buy, Hyatt and Levi Strauss & Co., among others.

Time is running out for Congress to pass a legislative solution, like the Dream Act, that would protect the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients currently living, working and contributing to communities across the country. Earlier this year, the Trump administration decided to end the DACA program, and as a result, the fate of Dreamers is in Congress’ hands. If Congress doesn’t act now, hard-working, tax-paying DACA recipients will be faced with the threat of deportation from the only nation they have ever called home.