Bipartisan business leaders stand for DACA reinstatement

DACA recipient Jesús Arreola did nothing wrong. Working as an Uber and Lyft driver in February, he was called to pick up people who had illegally crossed the border. He didn’t know that, and he is not accused of complicity. But ICE wants to deport him anyway for “being in country illegally.”

Everyone who applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is, by definition, here illegally. Arreola was brought here as a 1-year-old. Last week a judge issued an injunction against deporting him because ICE could provide no other grounds.

This close call shows the urgency for the U.S. House and Senate to reinstate DACA, as President Donald Trump, having killed it, called upon them to do. It is critical not just to our humanity — clearly ICE is ready to pounce — but to the economy.

Fortunately, California business leaders, always supportive of DACA, are stepping up in a more organized way. They have a strong interest: Of the 800,000 recipients nationwide, more than a quarter — some 230,000 — are in California. Deporting them would be an $11.6 billion hit on the state’s gross domestic product.

Nearly half of the DACA recipients are attending or have graduated from college. They are, in the view of industry, an essential part of the workforce, which is projected to fall far short of the need for people to fill innovation industry jobs in coming decades.

The coalition supporting DACA is the Regional Economic Association Leaders Coalition of California, representing 20 member organizations — including the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which has been vocal in supporting DACA all along — and some 15,000 employers who provide nearly 4 million jobs in the state.

But Californians — Republican or not — won’t hold sway with a GOP congressional majority. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield should be leading the fight, but he has been disappointing in his failure to stand up for California on matters such as tax reform. The business coalition needs to find like-minded organizations across the country to speak more loudly.

Only the most extreme antiimmigrant lawmakers oppose DACA. The question is whether Congress has the moral fiber to extend this program, a truly bipartisan cause, in a clean manner instead of holding it up to gain leverage on other votes.

Arreola is not one of the college-graduate DACA recipients. He is using his work permit, holding several different jobs, to help pay rent for his parents and care for his younger sisters. He is a caregiver for one sister, who is disabled.

Arreola’s parents have green cards and the girls are citizens. He is the only undocumented member of the family. Taking him away from them will benefit no one.

But we don’t expect the humanitarian argument to carry weight in this Congress. It’s the economy that will hold sway. So our hope is with business leaders to save the day.

This close call shows the urgency for the U.S. House and Senate to reinstate DACA, as President Donald Trump, having killed it, called upon them to do.