(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) has released the following statement regarding reports that President Trump may end the DACA and TPS programs:
“I urge President Trump and his administration to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protection Status (TPS) programs.
“Today nearly 800,000 DACA recipients live, work, and attend schools in our communities. These young people contribute to our national economy and our local communities. They are students and family members. They work as educators and scientists, bricklayers and farm workers, doctors and lawyers, members of the military and more.
“Yet today DACA recipients, like all immigrants, are under attack by this Administration. President Trump has initiated terrifying crackdowns on immigrant communities and increased ICE raids and deportations, and is now reportedly considering ending DACA entirely. If DACA is repealed, young immigrants who have worked diligently to succeed in America and now call this country home would face detention and/or deportation to countries they barely know. This would be an unconscionably and gratuitously cruel act by the Trump Administration against a vulnerable population.
“I was proud to stand with immigrants when I was a State Senator in Annapolis, where we worked to pass Maryland’s Dream Act five years ago. And I am proud to stand with immigrants today, and every day, in Congress. I support bipartisan legislation that would provide protection for these young people in the event that the Trump Administration succumbs to its worst impulses and ends DACA. I also support the DREAMer Information Protection Act, which protects DACA applicant information from misuse, as well as the DREAMers, Immigration, and Refugees Act, which directs $5 million from DHS to go to local non-profits that provide legal aid to DREAMers, lawful residents and refugees facing deportation.
“We must do everything we can to counter the harsh new turn in immigration policy and defend the highest ideals of America.”