U.S COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS
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USCRI Calls for Clear Path to Citizenship on DACA 10-year Anniversary

June 15, 2022

Ten years ago, President Barack Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gave certain individuals who came to the United States as children work authorization and protection from deportation. This momentous occasion uplifted immigrant youth hope and allowed them to contribute to their community and live the American Dream without fear of deportation. Over 80,000 DACA recipients, or Dreamers, have contributed to the United States as engineers, members of the military, teachers, business owners, essential workers, doctors, and so much more.

The DACA program is, and was always meant to be, temporary. Because of lackluster leadership in congress, attacks on the program, and political gridlock, thousands of American youths have been in limbo for a decade.

“A temporary solution that has spanned a decade does nothing but create a second-class citizenship,” USCRI CEO and President Eskinder Negash said. “Without meaningful legislation that offers these Americans a pathway to citizenship, Dreamers will never fully be able to integrate into the United States.”

USCRI calls on the White House and legislators to build a commonsense immigration system and pass legislation that offers Dreamers a pathway to citizenship as it continues to face legal challenges. The most recent challenge comes in the form of a lawsuit the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear in July, which challenges the legality of the DACA program. Dreamers who arrived in the U.S. as children deserve every opportunity to continue to prosper and thrive in the country they have called home for years.

USCRI, founded in 1911, is a non-governmental, not-for-profit international organization committed to working on behalf of refugees and immigrants and their transition to a dignified life.

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