Chairman Carper: Today’s Action Will Continue To Help Thousands Of Hard-Working, Upstanding Young Immigrants

WASHINGTON – Today, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement in response to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson’s decision to renew the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) directorate initially issued by former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on June 15, 2012:

“The renewal of this important policy will continue to help thousands of hard-working, upstanding young immigrants in Delaware and across the country reach their potential and make positive contributions to America as adults. These young immigrants were brought into the U.S. by others and since have worked hard, attended our schools and, in some cases, honorably served our nation in the military. To many of these young people, America is the only home they really know. They deserve the opportunity to continue contributing to their communities and our country by graduating from college, getting a job or serving in the U.S. military. For the past two years, we’ve seen the positive impact that this program has had on individuals, families, and communities, and I am pleased Secretary Johnson is moving to extend it.

“Although the renewal of this policy will help assure promising futures for thousands of young immigrants, stop-gap and patchwork executive actions are not a permanent or complete solution. Our nation needs comprehensive immigration reform that addresses many of the root causes of undocumented immigration. Nearly one year ago, the Senate acted and passed a bipartisan, comprehensive solution that modernizes our immigration system, strengthens our borders and ports of entry, and enhances our nation’s economic and national security in a manner that is practical, humane and fair. It even includes a provision that would establish elements of today’s policy as law. While the bill isn’t perfect, it is a significant improvement over the status quo and provides our nation with an important opportunity to fix our broken immigration system – and grow our economy by almost one trillion dollars.  But in order for this solution to become law, we need our colleagues in the House to act. Fixing a broken system is far too important to allow partisanship to get in the way, and I continue to urge our House colleagues – Republicans and Democrats alike – to follow the Senate’s bipartisan lead.”