Contact Your Representative Now, and Tell Them to Sign the “Discharge Petition” to Force a Vote on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and to Cosponsor and Support the DREAM Act (HR 3440)

Tell your Senators and Representative to join their colleagues demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign, to quickly enact bipartisan and humane immigration reform, and also to defund and abolish ICE—the agency that’s terrorizing children and families. Also, to vote NO on any legislation that falls short of the bipartisan DREAM Act.

ABC News reports, “At least 10 Democratic senators and members of Congress have called on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign, as of Tuesday morning, after the embattled agency chief blamed Congress, not the Trump administration, for the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.”

The bipartisan Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act will grant protections and legal status to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and have spotless records.

Reason.com reported ICE “was created in the panicked days after 9/11 to enhance national security. But its primary purpose has become hunting down and ejecting people whose main ‘crime’ often is that they can't obtain a piece of paper from the government authorizing them to live and work in the United States.”

We must act quickly. Children as young as 12 months are separated from their parents at the border. So-called personal abuse and gang violence are no longer considered viable reasons for requesting asylum, even if those abuses are abetted by government policies and indifference.

Here are the facts: in February the Senate failed to pass legislation on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Speaker Paul Ryan refuses to allow debate in the House, and President Trump continues to say that he will not sign a DACA bill unless Congress gives him billions in taxpayer money for his ridiculous "big, beautiful" wall.

Several months after Trump rescinded the Obama-era initiative, multiple deadlines have come and gone to fix DACA. Young people who have lived here most of their lives and are in every sense Americans are still being used as pawns in partisan political games. We have one last chance to move DACA forward before the midterms.

Now, we see a new effort by so-called moderate Republicans in the House to defy the Speaker and bring legislation to the floor. So far, nearly 20 House Republicans and one Democrat have signed on to a discharge petition. If all the Democrats and a few more Republicans sign, constituting a House majority (218), they can force debate and votes on multiple bills. The bill that gets the most votes passes.

Of the bills now active in the House only the bipartisan DREAM Act (HR 3440) has overwhelming support of the American people and traction in Congress. This bill, backed by most Democrats, would offer permanent legal status and a path to citizenship without tacking on money for a border wall and unnecessary border militarization. Other bills for consideration are the weak bipartisan bill (Hurd-Aguliar HR4796) and the totally unacceptable Goodlatte bill (HR 4760), plus a bill of Speaker Ryan’s choice.

"It's good that they are pushing to have debate," says Karina Ruiz, President of the Arizona DREAMAct Coalition. But she and others, including Progressive Democrats of America, are concerned about the timing of the discharge petition. Are Republicans finally serious about passing this vital legislation or are they merely attempting to curry favor with a growing Latino electorate before the 2018 elections? Let’s find out.

Right now, it is imperative to contact your member of Congress and urge him or her to sign on to the DACA discharge petition and to support HR 3440, the DREAM Act.

If 218 signatures are obtained, this legislative package could come to the House floor in June, and Progressive Democrats of America will continue to stand with DREAMers. DREAMer organizations and allies in the progressive movement will not stop until we get a clean Dream Act passed.