CONTACT: Wayne Ranick: (412) 562-2444, wranick@usw.org
(Pittsburgh) --The following statement was issued today by United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement that the administration would terminate in six months the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that suspended deportation of young people brought to the United States by parents who did not have documentation.
“Deporting young people brought to the United States by parents lacking proper documentation to immigrate is punishing the child for the dreams of the parents. The vast majority contribute positively to our economy, our national defense and respond to natural disasters such as Harvey.
“A huge proportion of the 800,000 young people who qualified for DACA status were transported to the United States by parents who were desperate for work after losing family farms because of NAFTA or who were terrorized by drug gangs and other violence in their home countries. DACA protected these young people from being deported for decisions made by their parents, decisions that were utterly out of the children’s control.
“To spare from deportation these 800,000 young people who trusted the government enough to provide their names, addresses and other identifying information, Congress now must quickly act to enshrine in law the protections DACA provided.
“Like the AFL-CIO, the USW supports comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for these youngsters and their hard-working parents, some of whom are USW members. If a comprehensive agreement is impossible, Congress must quickly find a way to adopt a narrower measure to protect the DACA recipients.”
The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed in many industries that include metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service and public sectors. For more information: http://www.usw.org/.
###