10 signatures reached
To: Steve Knight (CA-25)
Defend DACA Now! #CA25
For too long, Rep. Steve Knight has been silent, or worse, hostile to undocumented immigrants and immigrants in general. It is time for Rep. Steve Knight to affirm and publicly defend DACA while actively pushing for immigration reform so that all people can stand in the sun, to stand in their own truth.
As a former police officer, Rep. Steve Knight should understand that criminalizing undocumented immigrants only makes our communities less safe. It pushes people into the shadows, isolates, and shuns with the message that "you do not belong."
But more important than the public safety argument is the fact that the U.S. is HOME to these immigrants (undocumented and documented alike). We are all immigrants who have come to live on land that belongs to Native Americans--who are still existing and living by the way. We should not be in the business of dictating to someone that they are unworthy of belonging simply because they or their family got caught up in the badly broken (and in many ways, unjust) immigration system by no choice of their own. Families should not be torn apart. Immigrants are #HereToStay.
Why is this important?
On June 29, 2017 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with 9 other Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, as well as the Governor of Idaho, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for the Secretary of Homeland Security to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In their ultimatum to the Trump Administration, the attorneys general present two options: get rid of DACA or they will fight to destroy it in the courts.
The letter goes on to state that the Trump Administration has until September 5th, 2017 to begin the phase-out of DACA: halting the renewal and issuing of new DACA or expanded DACA permits and calling for an ultimate end to the program.
If the administration does not act on the letter’s demand, the attorneys general will expand the lawsuit they used to end DAPA (a sister program meant to protect Dreamers' parents and family members) to now add a challenge to DACA.
Recently, Luis Gutierrez met with Secretary of Homeland Security, General Kelly, and warned DACA and TPS recipients to prepare for the worst.
This is a serious threat for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, and it will take all of us raising our voices together to begin to turn the tide.
DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of qualified immigrant youth to gain legal protection, go to college, and support their families and communities. While Trump vowed he would leave Dreamers and DACA alone, a handful of states have now threatened to sue to try to end it themselves.
The first step in this fight is to ask elected officials from every state to come out publicly defending -- instead of destroying -- DACA. They can use their power to make a strong case for why DACA is worth saving, but they need to hear from us that this is a critical priority.