Statement by Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, National Immigrant Justice Center

President Trump’s immigration plan is an assault on immigrants, refugees, and the will of American voters. The majority of Americans support a clean Dream Act for the more than one million individuals who arrived in this country when they were young and who now are subject to deportation because the president ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  

The president speaks of unity and making the American dream available to all, yet his policies and actions betray that. The four pillars he talked about in the State of the Union are from the White House’s disingenuous "framework" for immigration legislation, a collection of proposals that would harm American communities rather than providing protection. This framework proposes a dismantling of the American asylum system and cuts to lawful migration that would leave families permanently separated.

Rather than pursuing polices rooted in racism and xenophobia, the president must support a clean Dream Act. We are calling on Congress to rise above the doublespeak and fear mongering, refrain from being complicit in policies that harm refugees and immigrants and their American families, and pass a clean Dream Act that provides a reasonable path to citizenship for Dreamers and does not harm immigrant communities and refugees.