Santa Fe New Mexican: Time’s running out for Dreamers

The sentiment by some in Washington — including the White House — is so hostile to immigration (legal or illegal) that finding a workable compromise an ever-moving target. But time is running out, as protections for the young adults covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are expiring next year, a result of President Donald Trump’s decision to end the protections. (DACA protected young, undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and who met certain conditions, including rigorous background checks.)

Called Dreamers after the failed DREAM Act, the young people in peril are 800,000 strong, with another 800,000 or so nearly old enough to claim the protection granted under President Barack Obama’s executive order. Lujan Grisham, also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, was speaking before the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association as part of a nationwide push by the New American Economy, a bipartisan national group of business and political leaders. Locally, the lunch was in support of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, a nonprofit legal team serving Santa Fe’s immigrant community.