The Dreamers and the Border

The White House has demanded that an increase of 33 billion dollars in funding for anti-immigrant measures be included as a part of the DREAM act. 18 Billion dollars of this funding increase would be spent on the border wall and the rest on terrorizing immigrant communities in this country. 

 As the Southern Border Communities Coalition says, “The Administration’s  misguided and outlandish proposal would waste $33 Billion dollars of taxpayer money to further militarize border communities, by building walls and deploying more federal agents. This funding request is an affront to the 15 million people who call the borderlands home . The funding proposal  further  fails to address border residents’ true needs including oversight and accountability for abusive Customs and Border Protection personnel.  Increasing the number of agents would have little to no impact on security and would be fiscally irresponsible and unwarranted.”

The Administration’s   demands include more deportations, punishments for cities that protect their immigrants with sanctuary laws, and an increase in  ICE’s budget. 

These demands are unacceptable. If the White House’s version of the DREAM act passes, immigrants in this country will face arbitrary harassment by hostile federal agencies. The White House claims that this violence is necessary in order to fight terrorism and drug cartels. These threats used to justify their draconian demands are either imaginary or exacerbated by our deportation policy.

The Administration also claim that they want additional measures to punish those who use what the administration calls loopholes in our immigration laws including the preferences  for family unification.  Removing these “loopholes” would uproot thousands of people who know no other home, many of whom are children. Congress must instead pass a clean DREAM act. Anything else will wreck countless lives on both sides of the border."

Duane Campbell 
Immigrants' Rights Committee
Brandon Rey Ramirez
Immigrants Rights Committee  Co-Chairs