SPRINGFIELD >> Residents in the 7th Congressional District hand delivered a petition on Thursday to the Springfield office of U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, R-7 of Chadds Ford, urging him to support a “clean” DREAM Act and asking that protections for over 800,000 immigrant youth not be tacked onto another bill. More than a dozen individuals from the region gathered to plead for the preservation of rights to foreign youth who came to the United States as children, and know nothing of their family’s country of origin. Not only would deportation hurt those individuals, it would be damaging to the entire community, they said.
“No quid pro quo,” said Joan Spiegelman, 79, outside Meehan’s office in reference to negotiations over the dreamers. “This cannot be tacked onto a bill about a wall.”
DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, offered protection to individuals who entered the country as minors, receiving deferred action on deportation and a work permit. President Trump’s Sept. 5 repeal of the executive order signed by former President Obama gave Congress six months to figure out a solution.
Meehan released a statement the day Trump repealed DACA, claiming Obama “overstepped his authority and circumvented Congress.”
“Congress writes laws and the executive branch enforces them. Congress should address this issue,” Meehan said.
However, he was very clear that the immigrant youth should find a track to citizenship.
“These young people are here through no fault of their own,” the statement continues. “They did not make a choice to violate our laws. We shouldn’t punish kids for their parents’ choices. Congress can and should resolve this in a fair, just and bipartisan way.”
The DREAM Act was first announced on Aug. 1, 2001. It’s been reintroduced multiple times, but never passed in Congress. Obama’s DACA executive order offered protection to many of them same individuals that would have been protected under the DREAM Act.
“We’re asking that it not be attached to a bill calling for the deportation of a parent, or tacking it onto the wall,” said Shari Draayer, 68, of King of Prussia, who teaches criminal justice at Esperanza College and sociology at Eastern University. “We want to establish a quick and easy transition to citizenship.”
Draayer said she has an undocumented student who “put her life on hold” after hearing Trump ended DACA protections, which for her meant taking a hiatus from school where she had planned to study immigration law.
“Ending DACA just sent 800,000 people into a tailspin,” Draayer said. “How do you plan your future if you could be deported at any moment?”
Scott Laird, 68, a retired geologist from Wayne, was among the group outside Meehan’s office Thursday. He said it was imperative to offer Dreamers a path to citizenship.
“These are already productive members of our society. It wasn’t their decision to come here. It’s unfair to deport them,” Laird said. “The children deserve a chance to become citizens and not be forced to go to a foreign country they’ve never been.
“This is their home.”
