Progressive group’s letter to Democrats

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Capitol Building, Room 204
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Charles Schumer
Minority Leader
U.S. Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 419
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Leader Pelosi and Leader Schumer,

A clean Dream Act must be passed immediately to ensure the safety, dignity and livelihood of immigrant youth, their families and the broader communities they are part of.

More than 11,000 young people have lost their protection from deportation and ability to work since the Trump Administration announced on September 5th the termination of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that had protected nearly 800,000 young undocumented Americans.

Each day without a permanent legislative solution, 122 who benefitted from DACA will lose their protections and many more people will become vulnerable to the ever-growing enforcement machine that has already separated millions of families. This is particularly concerning because leading up to the termination of DACA, there were a series of DACA recipients who were targeted for arrest and deportation including Daniel Ramirez Medina, Ricky Enriquez Perdomo, and Daniela Vargas.

The undersigned organizations stand with immigrant youth who have put their lives on the line, contribute to our economy and add to the diverse fabric of our society. As you go into negotiations with your counterparts in Congress and the White House, we call on you to stay true to your commitment that passage of a clean Dream Act is a priority and ensure it be included in the must-pass spending bill that Congress needs to approve by December 22.

We want to make clear that votes on any spending bill that moves forward without a clean Dream Act are votes to deport Dreamers and rip communities apart already tarnished by heightened violence, discrimination and criminalization with an Administration that has continued to champion a racist, white supremacist, xenophobic and Islamophobic agenda.

This is a chance for you to be seen as leaders who are pushing back on detrimental policies and championing issues identified by directly impacted and marginalized communities.

There is a short window of opportunity for us to pass a permanent solution before the end of the year in legislation that would benefit all those who qualified under DACA and potentially hundreds of thousands more: a clean Dream Act.

We hope you and your caucus seize this moment and become Dream Heroes in time for the winter holidays.

Sincerely,

United We Dream
CREDO
198 methods
350 Seattle
350.org
Action Group Network
ActLocal
Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus
Alliance for Youth Action
America’s Voice
APIENC (API Equality – Northern California)
Arkansas United Community Coalition
Asian American Action Fund
Asian American Federation
Asian American Organizing Project
Asian American Resource Workshop
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA
Asian Americans United
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Seattle chapter
Asian Pacific Islander Queers United for Action (AQUA DC)
Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council
Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council
Asian Services In Action, Inc.
Asylee Women Enterprise
Bend the Arc Jewish Action
California Immigrant Policy Center
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Center for Popular Democracy
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
Central Valley Immigrant Integration Collaborative (CVIIC)
Chicago Votes
Chinese Community Center, Houston
Church World Service
Coalition of Labor Union Women
Congolese Development Center
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Courage Campaign
Daily Kos
Deeds Not Words
Democracy for America
Detention Watch Network
Dream Corps/Green For All
Earthjustice
Engage Miami
Farmworker Justice
Florida Asian American Student Union
Forward Montana
Franciscan Action Network
Franciscan Peace Center
Franciscans,
T.O.R.
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
Friends of the Earth
HANA Center
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)
Impulse Group DC
Indivisible
Indivisible TxLege
International American Relief Society
International Center of Kentucky
International Institute of Akron
International Institute of Buffalo
International Institute of Minnesota
Khmer Girls in Action
League of United Latin American Citizens
League of United Latin American Citizens
Little Tokyo Service Center
Local Progress
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Mi Familia Vota
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice
Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition
Movement Voter Project
Movement Voter Project
MoveOn
MPower Change
MQVN Community Development Corporation
Muslim Public Affairs Council
Muslim Public Affairs Council
National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Employment Law Project
National Immigrant Justice Center
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
National Tongan American Society
Nationalities Service Center
NEAT – the National Equality Action Team
New Era Colorado
New Mexico Asian Family Center
NextGen America
OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates
Ohio Progressive Asian Women’s Leadership
Ohio Student Association
OneAmerica
Pantsuit Nation
ParentsTogether
ParentsTogether Action
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Presente.org
Pride at Work
Progress Texas
Progressive Democrats Of America
Raleigh Immigrant Community Inc.
SCOPE at Texas State
SLU Interfaith Alliance
South Asian Americans Leading Together
SOUTH ASIAN FUND FOR EDUCATION,SCHOLARSHIP AND TRAINING (SAFEST)
TABE Texas Association for Bilingual Education
Texas Democratic Party
The America Team for Displaced Eritreans
The Bus Project
The Reformed Church of Highland Park
Tovether We Will USA
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
UndocuBlack Network
UniPro (no American Unity for Progress, Inc.)
Wall of us
We Belong Together
Women’s March
Youth Co-Op, Inc.
YP4

Love it!

Via @ErikaAndiola

"UPDATE: Erika and the 6 other Dreamers & one ally who were arrested on Friday are being held in police custody until at least Tuesday morning. They were brought before a judge and the government requested a hold in response to their noncooperation. In accordance with the direction of their clients, the #Dream7 attorneys did not oppose the hold. They have all been transferred to DC jail. We have reason to believe that DC Court Pre-Trial Services took initiative to contact ICE about Erika. I spoke with Erika via phone from jail at ~3:45a last night and confirmed to share this. Every day that they are in police custody the danger of additional ICE engagement and then deportation grows, as it grows for all undocumented youth with each day that goes by without passage of the Dream Act. We have confirmed that Erika and the others are all on hunger strike and have been since they were arrested. They are committed to remaining in jail until Senator Chuck Schumer & Rep. Carlos Curbelo publicly confirm that they have the votes to block any spending bill without a clean Dream Act. We request solidarity to put maximum public and private pressure on Schumer & Curbelo via all channels. Please share this post everywhere. Thank you so much to everyone who is taking any action to support at this difficult time.~Kai"

i understand now... i understand the clean dream act folks. thats why i dont really care how passage is done.

the clean dream act folks are the counter balance to all bullshit the Republicans are putting us through.

the #Dream7 who were arrested 48 hrs ago, not giving their names, going on a hunger strike till DA passes humbled me.

Belen Sisa (shes my boo also.) is one of the #Dream7, she’s my source for all the shit that is going on.

Let’s help put pressure on schumer!!! If he really cares about dreamers like his Twitter reflects, he will comply so they are released!!

Why Carlos Curbelo though? Is he the key to getting moderate holdouts in the house?

he the first republican that publicly said he wont vote for a spending deal w/o daca fix.

i believe it will happen next week.

lets gooooooooo!

I hope moderate republicans or at least republicans from blue states/dsicticts clinton won use the FC tactics to upend a spending bill. If they can’t even get it out the house, more leverage for it to pass with Dream Act as an amendment.

And also Pelosi, Hoyer, Ryan, and McConnell.