From November 2019 until spring 2020, while the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates on several lawsuits stemming from the termination by the Trump administration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, it is vital that we encourage Congress to act to provide DACA recipients with a path to citizenship. As the House passed H.R. 6 which includes a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, we ask that you turn your attention to your senators and urge them to stand in support of young adult immigrants by supporting legislative protection for DACA recipients generally and the bipartisan Dream Act of 2019, S. 874, specifically.
Lutherans have long supported young people who came to the U.S. before the age of 16, known as “Dreamers,” as we believe in protecting the dignity of every human being, especially that of our children. DACA is a program that has benefited nearly 700,000 young people by ensuring that recipients who have lived most of their lives in this country are able to live their lives free of the anxiety that they could be deported at any time to a country they do not know and separated from their families.
H.R. 6 would provide critical permanent legal protection to DACA recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders and individuals with Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) who are living in a state of uncertainty and fear. The ELCA has voiced support for the bill numerous times by issuing statements and urging passage of H.R.6. While the House passed its version of the Dream Act, we ask you to stand in solidarity with immigrants and their families by sending a message to your senators and request that they support S.874, the Dream Act of 2019.
As Lutherans, we are called to welcome the stranger and share a commitment to justice that advocates for fair and generous laws. “As members of a church with immigrants and with roots in immigrant churches in a nation of immigrants, we are familiar with old and new stories about newcomers. We have heard how persons left their homes for economic or political reasons, journeyed into an uncertain future, and struggled in a strange land to begin a new life” (ELCA social message on Immigration, pg. 2). Found in the Gospel of Matthew is a story of the holy family when “Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt” (Matthew 2:14).
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