For Immediate Release
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Media Contacts:
Sumi Yi, NAKASEC, 571.247.6315
Jung Woo Kim, Korean Resource Center, 213.864.9270
Nayoung Ha, HANA Center, 773.633.1270
NAKASEC & Affiliates Call for a Clean DREAM Act by Christmas!
Last night, Speaker Paul Ryan told leaders of a Republican Study Committee that protections for immigrant youth would be included in the year-end spending bill.
On September 5th, Trump cancelled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program, leaving 800,000 youth at risk, including thousands of Asian Americans. The DREAM Act will give an estimated 2.1 million immigrant youth the opportunity to work, go to school, and a pathway to citizenship.
Since the cancellation of DACA, NAKASEC and its affiliates Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles/Orange County, HANA Center in Chicago and NAKASEC Virginia have been meeting with legislators on both sides of the aisle to urge them to support a clean DREAM Act, which supports immigrant youth while doing no harm to other members of the immigrant communities.
Jung Woo Kim, Korean Resource Center Membership Coordinator and DACAmented leader said, “A clean DREAM Act gives us our basic human rights. Is that too much for young people to ask for Christmas?”
“And, it is cruel and nonsensical to shield immigrant youth from deportation and then deport their parents. Immigrant youth, like all young people, need their parents who love them and support them to grow and live to their full potential,” added Sumi Yi, NAKASEC Virginia’s Community Organizer.
NAKASEC & affiliates, with the newly formed AAPI Immigrant Rights Organizing Table, will hold a national AAPI DREAM Mobilization to Washington DC on November 15 & 16 to amplify AAPI voice and presence to urge Congress to pass a clean bipartisan bill to protect and support young immigrants who are the future of this country.
