Commentary: U.S. House Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) issued the following statement on the Supreme Court ruling against the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for the 800,000 DACA recipients who have lived in uncertainty because of the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. Nearly 17,000 individuals across New Mexico depend on the DACA program to study, work, and contribute to the only country they call home. Dreamers are valued members of our communities, and I am grateful that this program will continue to serve as a lifeline for them.
“However, today’s ruling is an important reminder that Dreamers need a permanent, legislative solution. That’s exactly why I helped lead the effort to pass the Dream and Promise Act in the House – vital legislation that continues to languish on Mitch McConnell’s desk. It’s time for McConnell and Senate Republicans to allow a vote.”
SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham released the following statement on Thursday following the United States Supreme Court preventing the federal government from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA:
“Today’s decision is not only incredibly welcome, it is right and just and long overdue. DACA recipients are our neighbors, our coworkers, and our friends, working to build lives for themselves in the only country they have ever known. They are an essential part of the very fabric of our community, and the protections offered to them by DACA are critical to both their individual safety and future and to the collective future of New Mexico.
“The Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant policies needlessly and callously put them at risk and failed to recognize the contributions these young people have made, and continue to make, to our country and our economy. I am proud to have spent my career in Congress advocating for Dreamers and fighting for the protection and extension of DACA. Dreamers have been and always will be valued New Mexicans, and I celebrate this validation and victory with them.”
ALBUQUERQUE—James Jimenez, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on whether President Trump has the legal authority to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program:
“We are pleased with today’s ruling on the DACA case. There are limitations on any one person’s right to make unilateral decisions that impact millions of American families, even for the person holding the highest office in the nation.
“Born of the failure of Congress to enact true immigration reform, DACA has never been a perfect program, but it is a step in the right direction for the hundreds of thousands of young people born in another country. For many of these youth, America is the only home they have ever known. To deport them to what is, for some of them, a foreign country does not align to American values of fairness, inclusion, and the dream of a better life through hard work.
“Unfortunately, DACA is not a path to citizenship, and making it one must be our goal moving forward. DACA recipients are students, employees, and employers. They are parents, siblings, and children. They pay taxes and make unique contributions to their communities and our state and it’s time we granted them the path to citizenship that they’ve earned.”
June 18, 2020
Borderplex Alliance CEO Jon Barela issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“We applaud today’s Supreme Court decision. Allowing 800,000 productive, tax-paying, and ambitious young people to work, attend school, serve in the armed forces, and stay in the country lawfully is both humane and fiscally prudent. The DREAMers account for nearly $24.6 billion in Social Security and Medicare tax contributions and add more than $460.3 billion to the GDP. At a time of unprecedented economic volatility, business leaders across the ideological spectrum recognize that immigrants are vital to the future of our nation and our economy. DREAMers grew up in our neighborhoods, went to school with our children, passed background checks, have registered with the government, and have jumped through every conceivable hurdle the federal government has asked of them—all for the privilege of being allowed to continue contributing to the greatness of America. While the Supreme Decision’s today is reassuring, we urge Congress to find a longterm, bipartisan solution to our inefficient and short-sighted immigration system. Doing so will make the country more prosperous and allow us to live up to our highest ideals as a nation.”
—Jon Barela
CEO, The Borderplex Alliance