DREAM Act Update

SENATORS TO OBAMA: ACTION NEEDED ON DREAMERS

WASHINGTON – On April 13, 2011, 22 senators signed a letter to President Obama urging him to use prosecutorial discretion to prevent undocumented youth who have been raised in the United States from being summarily deported. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center:

"Senators across the country bravely took a stand to prevent youth who have known no other country from being deported to lands they do not know. Because of our broken immigration system, these young people live in daily fear of being separated from their friends, family, and country, with no way to change their immigration status.

"This diverse group of senators rightly recognize that President Obama can and should use his executive authority to ensure that these young people – who are American at heart but lack the papers to prove it – are not caught in the immigration enforcement dragnet that has ensnared record members of our communities. If these young talented students are deported, the entire country loses out.  .

"During his State of the Union address, the President unequivocally stated that he was against deporting these highly educated, talented youth. Unfortunately, because of partisan politics, and a majority vote in both the House and the Senate, the DREAM Act did not pass.  We greatly appreciate the President's support of the DREAM Act, but because of the bill's failure to move we join the senators in asking the President to use the power that he has to protect the fate of these young leaders who represent the future of our country.