Mayors of Allentown and Bethlehem have signed onto a bipartisan letter urging Congress to enact permanent protection for DACA recipients.
An early October court decision ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program violates federal law, putting its future in limbo. DACA is an immigration policy enacted by Barack Obama in 2012 which allows people who were unlawfully brought to the country as children to legally work and stay.
Around 610,000 people in the U.S. are DACA recipients. Current recipients of the program are protected for now, but no new applications are being accepted.
Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk and Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds are among more than 70 mayors and county executives who signed the letter, which calls on Congress to “enact legislation that offers permanent solutions for Dreamers.”
“The recent Fifth Circuit Court ruling declaring the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program unlawful brings the courts one step closer to ending the program indefinitely,” the letter reads.
To Reynolds, signing onto the letter was a “no-brainer.”
“My support for legislative action on the Dreamers starts with the idea that people are people, and that we need to remember who we are talking about here, undocumented minors who came to this country,” Reynolds said. “From my time teaching at Allen High School, I know I had several Dreamers in my classroom, and I remember listening to their stories of the barriers that they faced in trying to live a life of dignity and follow their American dreams.”
The U.S. House has passed bills granting DACA recipients permanent legal citizenship in the U.S., but the Senate has not done so. The letter urges Democratic leaders in the Senate to act during the “lame-duck period” before the new Congress is sworn in in January.
“We, leaders representing local governments around the country, are disappointed by the lack of Congressional action to pass fair and humane immigration reform and urge Congress to start by immediately enacting permanent protections for Dreamers, including DACA recipients,” the letter reads.
Others who signed on include New York Mayor Eric Adams, Chicago Mayor Laurie Lightfoot and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
In Pennsylvania, mayors of Philadelphia, Erie, Scranton, State College, Bellevue, Lancaster and Pittsburgh also signed on.
The Morning Call reached out to Tuerk for comment.
