lifeline
to America's undocumented youth, announcing that it will stop deporting
and give work permits to young adults who came to the U.S. as children,
or DREAMers. Through well-established executive authority, the administration will temporarily spare youth educated in America's schools from expulsion from the United States.
This announcement is especially fitting today, the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Plyler v. Doe.
In Plyler, the Court held that all children in America are entitled to
a basic public education, regardless of immigration status. The
DREAMers are Plyler's legacy--students who have worked hard to achieve
their educational and career goals and become contributing members of
society.
"Today, the administration has provided these young adults the
opportunity to pursue the American Dream," said Laura W. Murphy,
director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.
The threat of deportation has haunted the lives of students like Heydi Meija,
who, as reported by the Washington Post, was brought to the United
States from Guatemala at age four and recently graduated with honors
from Meadowbrook High School in Richmond, Virginia. Heydi had planned
to go to college, until immigration officers came to her family's
apartment in December, turning her senior year into a countdown to
deportation. Today, the nightmare for students like Heydi has come to an
end, at least for a while.
Under the new policy,
DREAMers will be eligible for "deferred action" for two years (subject
to renewal) if they arrived in the U.S. before age 16, are younger than
30; have been in the U.S. for at least five continuous years; graduated
from a U.S. high school or earned a GED or served in the U.S. armed
forces; and have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant
misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a
threat to national security or public safety.
This important victory is a testament to the power of the immigrant
youth movement and its inspiring young leaders like recent guest-blogger
Lorella Praeli of United We Dream, or Victor Palafox, an Alabama community organizer whom we recently hosted at our celebration
of Plyler in Washington, D.C. The ACLU has proudly stood with the
DREAMers at the national level and in states like Alabama, Arizona,
California, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, and
Rhode Island, and celebrates their victory today.
But today's stopgap is not enough. The President cannot provide our
promising undocumented youth with what they ultimately need--a path to
U.S. citizenship. For a permanent solution, Congress must pass the DREAM Act,
which would provide a path to citizenship for immigrants who came to
our country as children and graduate from high school. For over a
decade, America's business executives, military commanders, college
presidents, mayors, and faith leaders have called on Congress to pass
the DREAM Act, yet Congressional Republicans have blocked the DREAM Act
from final passage. So as we celebrate today's victory, we call on all
Members of Congress to pass the DREAM Act and protect and build
America's future.
Today the Obama administration threw a
No comments:
Post a Comment