After learning that the U.S. Congress has pushed attempts to find a solution for Dreamers until early next year, Chula Vista leaders in a late December news conference urged members in Congress to immediately pass permanent protections for the nearly 800,000 Dreamers living across the United States.
Dreamers are undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
Despite a delay in Congress, Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas said the city of Chula Vista will continue to welcome all people, Dreamers included.
“We embrace and celebrate the diversity of all of our residents, students and workforce,” she said. “And we look forward to their active participation in the community today.”
President Donald J. Trump ended the Obama-era immigration policy known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in September and pressed Congress to find a replacement for the policy.
Under DACA, undocumented children who were brought to the United States by their immigrant parents received a renewable two-year period of deferred action of deportation and were eligible for a work permit.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in September that there would-be a six-month delay in terminating DACA to give Congress time to act.
District 4 Chula Vista Councilman Mike Diaz, a Republican, said he supports Trump ending the policy because Obama should have never had authority over it.
“It never belonged in the executive branch, it belonged in Congress,” Diaz said in an interview after the news conference. “Luckily, we have a president who understands that…”
‘…And that is what Trump is saying, he is going ‘Hey, DACA does not belong in the executive branch, it belongs in Congress’ and he has already said whatever (Congress) signs, he’ll do it’.”
Diaz, who was born in Mexico and became a naturalized citizen in 1982, said he fully supports a replacement for DACA as it should lead to immigration reform.
“I understand now that there is definitely a need for urgency to get (DACA) done,” Diaz said. “I will be making phone calls and urging our elected officials to get DACA done to the president for him to sign. He has already committed to signing it, we just need to get it to him.”
Casillas Salas said DACA beneficiaries have impacted communities across the United States.
Casillas Salas said about 12,000 dreamers have already lost their work permits and deportation protections since Trump eliminated DACA.
The mayor said more will continue to fall out of status every day until Congress passes a permanent legislative solution to protect them.
“They were educated in our schools and many have earned degrees from our universities. Dreamers are deeply integrated in nearly every community across the United States. They work as nurses, they work as teachers and lawyers, they go to our schools, they teach our children, they coach our kids’ sports teams,” she said.
“Far out weighting any economic or political concerns, Dreamers are hardworking young people who are American in every way except on paper,” she said. “They came forward and volunteered their personal information to the government in good faith. But that very same information could now be used to target them for deportation if Congress fails to take action.”
Irving Hernandez, 23, graduated in May from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering. He said if it was not for DACA he would not have been afforded the opportunity to go to college in the United States.
Hernandez’s DACA status expires next August and said he would not be surprised if Congress does not reach a deal by then.
