ACLU Comment on Reports that Trump Does Not Want Fix for Dreamers Attached to Spending Bill

WASHINGTON — President Trump reportedly told Senate Republicans at a White House meeting today that legislation addressing Dreamers’ status should not be included as part of the end of the year spending package.

Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaigns at the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following reaction:

“After recklessly ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in response to a plot manufactured by anti-immigrant hardliners, President Trump is now further endangering Dreamers’ futures. Any government funding bill that advances without a fix for Dreamers will undoubtedly include funding to deport them and their loved ones. This is unacceptable.

“Efforts to delay action or to load up the popular Dream Act with anti-immigrant provisions will derail what is so urgently needed this year. Republicans created this crisis for Dreamers and their allies — they need to take ownership and fix it.

“Dreamers should not have to spend the holidays wondering if they will be forced to leave the country they call home.”

Despite President Trump’s false reassurances that Dreamers would have “nothing to worry about,” DACA recipients and other young immigrants have faced renewed threats and attacks. DACA recipients like Jessica Colotl are an example of how the government is unjustly targeting and threatening individual Dreamers.

Additionally, 22,000 DACA beneficiaries missed the Trump administration’s new and arbitrary October 5 renewal deadline because the government failed to provide appropriate notice. If Congress doesn’t take action before the end of the year, 1,400 Dreamers will lose their ability to legally live and work in the U.S. each business day.