[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             DEFERRED ACTION FOR CHILDHOOD ARRIVALS PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 4, 2017

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, last month, the 
President made the irresponsible decision to rescind the Deferred 
Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA gives hundreds of thousands 
of young individuals the opportunity to come out from the shadows and 
contribute to our great country without fear of being sent back to a 
country that they barely know.
  Juan Carlos Cerda, a community organizer with the Texas Organizing 
project and recent graduate of Yale has already seen firsthand how much 
of an impact this policy change can have. Due to an error in USCIS's 
system, Juan Carlos's DACA status was temporarily suspended in the fall 
of 2016. He was forced to take a leave of absence from teaching at an 
elementary school in the Dallas Independent School District. He was 
even denied access to volunteer on campus. If this is the havoc that 
rescinding DACA can have on one individual, imagine how it would impact 
the 113,000 recipients in North Texas and the 800,000 recipients across 
the country.
  DACA has allowed Erik Burgos, a Store Systems Engineer and graduate 
of Southern Methodist University, the opportunity to assist local 
students in achieving their academic ambitions as he currently does in 
his spare time. Without DACA he would be forced into the shadows and 
would no longer have a meaningful impact on students' lives.
  Because of the President's decision Maria Roman, Cynthia De La Torre 
Castro, and countless others would be prevented from pursuing the 
careers that they studied on university campuses across this great 
country. Bouzidi Najoa would be forced to return to a country where her 
family faced persecution by their government without her parents or 
siblings. Simply put, this policy change would not just drastically 
impact DREAMers, it would impact their friends, families, and 
communities.
  Mr. Speaker, these people are no different than you or I. They go to 
the same schools with our children, they're involved with their local 
church groups, and work hard every day to ensure that they too can one 
day live the American dream. This is why we need to bring the DREAM Act 
to the floor and pass this important bipartisan piece of legislation. 
These DREAMers have only known one home. It's time for this Congress to 
step up to the plate and let these young people know that we want them 
to always consider America their true home.

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