Bipartisan Co-chairs of Task Force on Immigration Reform Urge Congressional Action
Washington, D.C. — Today marks ten years since the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides critical protection for Dreamers, people brought to this country at a young age and who call it home. Recognizing the continuing importance of the program on this day, Mesa Mayor John Giles and Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, the bipartisan Co-chairs of The U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Immigration Reform, released the following statement:
“We join together today to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and to urge Congress to act quickly to provide permanent protection from deportation and a path to citizenship for all Dreamers – people who have lived in the United States since they were children and built their lives here. The U.S. Conference of Mayors stands ready to work with Congress to make this happen.
“Ten years ago, the Conference called on the Administration to establish DACA and praised President Obama and then Vice President Biden for doing so. The Conference has had strong policy supporting a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and extension of the DACA program for many years. Our bipartisan organization has adopted this policy because it is the right thing to do – for Dreamers, for our communities, and for our country.
“The cultural, economic, and social contributions of the more than 800,000 DACA recipients and their families to our cities cannot be overstated; particularly during a global pandemic where over 200,000 DACA recipients are working in essential roles. Each year, DACA recipients and their households pay $5.6 billion in federal taxes and $3.1 billion in state and local taxes on top of their payroll tax contributions to Social Security and Medicare. After taxes, DACA recipients and their households have a combined $24 billion in spending power to put back into their communities.”