Wow! This is great! And you can see the actual letter on the link below!
Quote:
Today, Senators Durbin and Lugar in a bipartisan letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. The letter states:
"We respectfully request that you grant deferred action to individuals who would be eligible for cancellation of removal or a stay of removal under S. 729, the DREAM Act, bipartisan immigration reform legislation that we have introduced."
The letter goes on to quote several statements by Secretary Napolitano and the recent deferred action to widows of US citizens who were married for less than two years prior to their spouses' death.
We applaud Senators Durbin and Lugar for working together across party lines to find real solutions to the devastating consequences of our country’s broken immigration system. We thank Sen. Durbin’s leadership in moving forward on comprehensive immigration reform and for his continuous support for undocumented youth.
By requesting that the Obama Administration defer deportations for students who would qualify for legalization under the DREAM Act, the Senators have recognized that deportations are destroying families and communities. To fix our dysfunctional immigration system in this climate in which immigrant communities are under attack, such bipartisan cooperation is crucial.
More than 65,000 undocumented students graduate from our nations’ high schools every year—students who have no prospects of work or higher education because of current restrictive laws. The DREAM Act would help certain youths who arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16, many of whom remember no other home. The students must have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, must have good moral character, must have graduated from high school or obtained a GED, and must attend college or serve in the military for two years.
“Senator Durbin understands that the indiscriminate deportation of immigrants, without consideration of their contributions or other circumstances, makes absolutely no sense,” said ICIRR Board Leader Raul Raymundo.
Senator Durbin made the commitment to send the letter to Secretary Napolitano at a rally of more than 1,200 immigrants and their supporters hosted by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) on April 10th. The letter comes at the same time that immigrant advocates, community leaders and allies from labor, business, and faith across the country are calling on President Obama to stop deportations of non-criminal immigrants.
We join with organizations across the country in urging President Obama to use his leadership to get comprehensive immigration reform introduced by the end of April and to stop senseless deportations.
As we anticipate the introduction of a bipartisan Senate bill, ICIRR and other organizations are planning large mobilizations for May Day in Chicago and in other cities in Illinois and across the country.
The surging numbers of deportations, the new “Secure Communities” arrangements between ICE and six Illinois counties, and recent legislation that would criminalize immigrants such as Arizona’s SB 1070 are creating a reign of racial terror across the country. This letter is an important step toward solutions and shows the urgent need to reform the immigration system, now.
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http://icirr.org/en/reform-immigrati...portations-dre