Saint Paul, MINN. – Today, lawmakers in the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus in the Minnesota House released the following joint statement asking President Donald Trump to continue the 2012 DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) policy that enables undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children to access two-year legal residence and work permits:
“Minnesotans are united in support for the Dreamers and DACA recipients who enrich our lives and strengthen Minnesota communities. These wonderful young Minnesotans play an enormous role in our schools, places of worship and workplaces. Their safety and security is bound with our prosperity as a state and as a nation.
We demand that US immigration policy reflect our state’s values and our humanity by ensuring that the over 6,300 Dreamers in Minnesota will be able to continue living and working as they have been since 2012, free from fear of a negative change in their residency status. There is no justice in enacting a DACA repeal that places the fear of criminal deportation on our young neighbors who are simply living their lives in peace. These law-abiding young Dreamers also deserve a US immigration policy that provides them an opportunity to access the process of becoming a US citizen through legal means. We ask the President to advocate for meaningful reform that does not tear families apart and uses common sense to allow children who have never known any other homeland, to legally call the United States home.
This is a moral imperative, and we will continue to fight for our immigrant neighbors and treat them with human dignity in our work here at the Capitol. These Dreamers are part of who we are as people in Minnesota, they are a vital part of our communities, and they are an integral part of our future as a state.”
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The People of Color & Indigenous (POCI) Caucus is a new caucus first formed in 2017 and includes Reps. Mary Kunesh-Podein (41B), Jamie Becker-Finn (42B), Peggy Flanagan (46A), Erin Maye Quade (57A), Fue Lee (59A), Ilhan Omar (60B), Susan Allen (62B), Rena Moran (65A), and Carlos Mariani (65B), Sens. Bobby Jo Champion (59), Jeff Hayden (62), Patricia Torres-Ray (63), Foung Hawj (67), and Melisa Franzen (49)