Migrants

USA: bishops support bill shielding Dreamers from deportation

(Foto: AFP/SIR)

(from New York) Yesterday, the bipartisan Bill endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats to protect Dreamers from deportation has received the official support of Mgr. Joe Vásquez, chairman of the Committee on Migration of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The bill, submitted to the House of Representatives, provides a path to US citizenship for about 800,000 young people who were brought to the US as children by their undocumented parents and were at risk of being deported to their countries of origin following the abolition of DACA, the program designed by the previous administration to protect them. Alongside citizenship, the new document, titled “Uniting and Securing America”, also provides for additional border control measures, including the use of enhanced technology to strengthen security along the border with Mexico, increasing the number of immigration judges and Board of Immigration Appeals staff attorneys, and cutting aid to those Central American countries that will not keep their emigration and corruption under control. While the bishops are aware that “a larger solution is still needed to fix our broken immigration system”, the proposal is a first step in supporting Dreamers and their families who risked being separated. “We are hopeful our support of the current version of the USA Act, and our continued support of the Dream Act, will encourage Congress to act now and find a humane legislative solution for Dreamers”, Mgr. Vásquez said, recalling that “it is both our moral duty and in our nation’s best interest to protect Dreamers”. Over the past months, the US Bishops have supported these young people, recognizing their contribution to the economic, academic and military life of the country, and their active role in parishes.