Kasich advocating for ‘Dreamers’
A bipartisan coalition of governors, including Ohio’s John Kasich, called on Congress on Wednesday to quickly move to allow foreignborn “Dreamers” to remain in the United States.
Similar to their past alliances to preserve Medicaid expansion and address other issues, the Republican Kasich and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, were the first to sign the letter to Senate and House leaders.
Nearly 800,000 young people who moved to the U.S. as minors with undocumented immigrants are threatened with deportation if they lose their protected status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. President Donald Trump terminated the program, leaving it to Congress to decide its fate.
The Dreamers’ fate will be decided next year, Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said Wednesday. Flake said he’s received assurances from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that the Senate will vote in January on bipartisan legislation addressing the matter. The promise came in talks regarding Flake’s backing for the tax bill.
The Migration Policy Institute estimated last year that 13,000 DACAeligible immigrants live in Ohio.
The governors wrote that “more than 12,000 Dreamers have lost their protective status and are susceptible to deportation. This is not a theoretical peril, but in fact an immediate and urgent one, because more than 100 young people in our cities and towns are losing their protective status every day. Those numbers will accelerate dramatically without a legislative fix.
“These are individuals who played no role in their decision to come here and they have known no other home but the United States,” the governors wrote.
“We stand with these young American immigrants not only because it is good for our communities and a strong American 21st century economy, but also because it is the right thing for our nation to do,” the governors wrote.
Lynn Tramonte, director of Ohio’s Voice, an immigration reform group, said polling shows a large majority of Americans support retaining DACA protections.
“Congress has a golden opportunity to do something that is unifying and bipartisan, instead of always engaging in the politics of division and partisanship. Gov. Kasich is right here: The way forward is bipartisan,” Tramonte said.