9/6/2017 FIRM Stands With the 8 out of 10 Americans Who Support DACA
St. Paul, MN – FIRM, a group of immigrants and children of immigrants from the Philippines working for racial and immigrant justice in Minnesota, strongly denounces the move by President Trump to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and betray the over 800,000 aspiring Americans who came to this country through no fault of their own and who have done everything asked of them in their quest for citizenship.
“DACA is a very important step for many immigrants in this country.” MaryAnne Quiroz, FIRM Board Member, states, “It promises the children of immigrants that they can live outside of the shadows and pursue the American Dream. The termination of this successful program by President Trump is further evidence of the racist, xenophobic, and white supremacist agenda that the Trump administration is pushing, to the detriment of communities of color, including our Filipinx community, everywhere.” Although the face of the undocumented community has been Latinx, FIRM understands the negative effects will be deeply felt across all immigrant groups, including over 2 million Filipinx, hundreds of thousands of whom are also undocumented.
“The reality is that DACA is a popular and fair program, so this decision is the wrong one morally, politically, and economically,” said FIRM Board Member Gregory King. “In rescinding DACA, the President is acting with a profound ignorance of the immigrant lineage of our country and punishing DREAMers who actually represent the very best of what it means to be American.” In addition to the individuals and families that will be affected by this change, the state of Minnesota stands to suffer a GDP loss of $360 million annually, according to the Center for American Progress.
A stopgap approach to truly just immigration policy, DACA represented a promise to young immigrants that, if they registered with the federal government and demonstrated a willingness to be contributing members of society, there would be a place for them in the USA. With the breaking of that promise, the time for legislative action is now and FIRM asks that all patriotic members of Congress, regardless of political party, work for comprehensive immigration reform beginning with immediate passage of the DREAM Act.
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FIRM is a non-profit and non-partisan organization founded in 2016 by a group of Filipinx community leaders in response to the rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric and bigotry against marginalized communities.