Today, 151 bipartisan mayors sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to support the passage of H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act. The bill would enable Dreamers, children who came to the United States at a young age and have since built their lives here as adults, a pathway to lawful permanent residence and American citizenship.
On a bipartisan basis, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) has supported granting permanent legal status to Dreamers for more than 10 years and first called for establishment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012. The organization adopted policy in 2019 specifically calling for enactment of the American Dream and Promise Act.
In the letter, they write, “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 800,000 DACA recipients and their families to their communities cannot be overstated; particularly during a global pandemic where over 200,000 DACA recipients are working in essential roles including 27,000 in health care positions.”
The full text of the letter can be found here and below:
Dear Members of the U.S. House of Representatives:
We write on behalf of the nation’s mayors to urge you to quickly pass H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act. This legislation would enable Dreamers – people who have lived in America since they were children and built their lives here – to earn lawful permanent residence and eventually American citizenship if they meet certain criteria. We pledge to work with you in this effort and to do whatever we can to assist you in seeing it enacted into law.
The United States Conference of Mayors has had strong policy supporting permanent legal status 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 800,000 DACA recipients and their families to their communities cannot be overstated; particularly during a global pandemic where over 200,000 DACA recipients are working in essential roles including 27,000 in health care positions.
In 2019 the Conference adopted policy specifically “calling on Congress to pass H.R. 6 the American Dream and Promise Act to ensure that Dreamers and TPS and DED recipients continue to live in, contribute to and ensure the prosperity of the cities they call home.” Dreamers and TPS and DED beneficiaries are longtime residents who call the United States home. The average TPS holder has been here for 22 years, and the average DACA recipient came at age 6.
Many Dreamers and TPS and DED holders are essential workers, working on the frontline to fight the Covid pandemic and helping to save lives. The time for Congress to act is now.
