Menendez, Schumer, Durbin, Padilla, Cortez Masto, and DACA Recipients Call on Congress to Legislate Protections for Dreamers After Wide Voter Support in Midterms

Press Release

U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), along with directly impacted immigrant youth leaders to call on Republicans in Congress to work with Democrats before the end of the year to pass permanent protections for immigrant youth.

Dreamers continue to live with the threat of losing their work permits and deportation protections following the 5th Circuit Court's negative decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. If Congress doesn't act in the lame duck session this year, the courts could end DACA as soon as next year, and an average of 1,000 DACA recipients would lose their jobs each week-- in labor market sectors already experiencing shortages, especially in health care, education, and more. 

"I encourage my Senate Republican colleagues to put the divisive anti-immigrant rhetoric in the past and join us in this latest effort to protect immigrants and unlock our nation's economic potential and finally fix a system that we can all agree is broken," said Sen. Menendez. "A decade after DACA was established, you have my commitment that Dreamers and their families are here to stay and we're going to fight like hell to protect the hundreds of thousands who are eligible for its protections."

"The election is over. Voters rejected the deeply anti-immigrant message of MAGA Republicans and Senate Republicans must now come to the table and offer realistic solutions to fix DACA," said Majority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.). "I call on my Republican colleagues to join Democrats and helps us protect our Dreamers. It is cruel and inhumane to keep millions in limbo. Senate Republicans need to work with us on this widely-supported policy so we can reach an agreement that will protect families and strengthen our economy."

"Dreamers are a part of the fabric of our society," said Senate Majority Whip Durbin (D-Ill.). "They serve as our teachers, doctors, and other essential workers, making our lives better every day. That is why I introduced the Dream Act more than twenty years ago--to provide them with a path to citizenship. Over a decade ago, I appealed to President Obama to protect Dreamers from deportation until Congress could act. And he did, creating the DACA program, which has protected over 800,000 Dreamers. But DACA was never intended to be a permanent solution--only Congress can provide that," said Durbin. "MAGA Republicans have made it clear that, if they take control of the House next year, they will block any efforts to protect DACA recipients. The time to act is now. A solution for Dreamers is long overdue. They have been forced to live in fear and uncertainty for far too long. I urge my Republican colleagues to join me and pass the Dream Act before the end of this year."

DACA-- one of the most successful and popular executive programs-- has allowed over 830,000 young people to live and work without an immediate fear of detention and deportation. Senate Democrats have repeatedly called for permanent legal protections for DACA recipients. With the program still on the chopping block, the Senators and advocates underscored the urgency for Republicans to step up now and work with Democrats on a bipartisan solution before the end of the year. 

"We are in a moment of choice. We can choose to act, and deliver much needed protections for millions of people, or we can choose to give in to the most cynical of thoughts," said Greisa Martínez Rosas, Executive Director of United We Dream."Thoughts that tell us we can't, we won't, we shouldn't. I invite you all to join us in defying all of that and instead say: we must! This is our time to finally deliver much needed relief for millions of people."

Sen. Menendez has been a life-long advocate for Latinos and immigrant families in New Jersey and across the nation. Earlier this Congress, he introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021-- the Biden Administration's bold, humane, and inclusive framework for immigration reform that would fundamentally transform the nation's immigration system by providing 11 million undocumented immigrants with a pathway to citizenship, growing our economy, addressing roots causes of migration, and effectively managing our borders.

Sen. Menendez has long led efforts to reverse inhumane Trump-era immigration policies, such as Title 42 and Remain in Mexico -- urging the Biden Administration to end failed border security policies designed by Stephen Miller to evade the nation's domestic and international legal obligations to asylum seekers and to create chaos at the border.

Sen. Menendez was also a member of the so-called "Gang of Six" that crafted a bipartisan DACA bill to provide Dreamers with a pathway to citizenship that garnered 54 votes but fell short in the Senate after former President Trump refused to support it. In 2013, Sen. Menendez was a member of the so-called "Gang of Eight" that passed bipartisan immigration reform in 2013 by an overwhelming majority in the U.S. Senate, only to be blocked by Republican leaders from ever coming to a vote in the House of Representatives.  

Source