Business leaders argue for DACA
SACRAMENTO — California business leaders on Tuesday said they want to send a resounding message to federal lawmakers: Reauthorize DACA.
On a conference call with reporters, members of the Regional Economic Assn. Leaders Coalition of California said the termination of the Obama-era program would be a devastating blow to the nation’s economy — one hard felt across the state.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, provides temporary legal status and work protections for some 700,000 young immigrants known as “Dreamers.” California has the highest number of recipients, roughly 222,800, who live, work or attend schools in the state.
“Are we nervous? Yes,” said Carl Guardino, president and chief executive of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “We don’t want to see our Dreamers left on the side of the road because of the lack of action in Congress.”
Guardino and other leaders with the coalition, which includes 20 organizations and nearly 15,000 employers, have been active in rallying support for bipartisan legislation to bring back the program or similar protections. They have met with state and national legislators and wrote a letter to congressional leaders.
DACA negotiations have stalled as President Trump and Republican lawmakers demand that any new law also include tougher measures on legal and illegal immigration. Failure to reach agreement by a Dec. 8 deadline could risk a government shutdown on a separate funding bill.
But business leaders said lawmakers should be able to come to an agreement without closing the government. Nearly 60,000 DACA-eligible immigrants live in Los Angeles, with 40,000 others in San Diego and 23,000 residing in Santa Clara, the heart of Silicon Valley, they said, pointing to statistics from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
About 96% of all DACA recipients are working or going to school, according to one survey from the National Immigration Law Center, the Center for American Progress and the University of California.
Alicia Berhow, vice president of the Orange County Business Council, said it is “incumbent upon our legislators to stand up and to stand up for our Dreamers here in California.”