Latin American Herald Tribune: Democratic Leader Presses Republicans to Help Dreamers

Washington, October 18, 2017
Read Congressman Jimmy Gomez on the Latin American Herald Tribune.
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met on Wednesday with beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program – known as Dreamers – to discuss efforts in Congress to pass a bill that would protect them now that President Donald Trump has announced the end of DACA.

Trump seeks to link the passage of a new Dream Act to funding for his proposed wall on the US-Mexico border, but Democrats and some Republicans want a “clean” bill to resolve the situation of the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients.

Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, has joined with California Democrat Lucille Roybal-Allard to present the Dream Act 2017.

Speaking at the headquarters of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Pelosi said she was optimistic of getting sufficient Republican support to pass the Dream Act and confident that the president would sign it.

Trump “said we had shared values when we spoke to him,” Pelosi recounted, referring to the meeting she and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had with the president after his “heartless” decision to terminate DACA.

“I trust that he will honor that commitment because the American people want him to do so,” the San Francisco lawmaker said.

Pelosi was accompanied at the event in Los Angeles by Roybal-Allard and two other California Democratic members of Congress, Jimmy Gomez and Judy Chu.

Dreamers “have lived in this country, they have grown up here, they have pledged allegiance to our flag,” Roybal-Allard said. “To do anything else but to protect them by passing the Dream Act is a betrayal and would be a disgrace and a very ugly mark on this country.”

Gomez pointed to polls showing that 82 percent of Americans sympathize with the Dreamers.

“Definitely the only weapon is to pressure these (Republican) congress-members who have already expressed their support (for the Dream Act) and are now going back on it,” DACE beneficiary Mariana Villafaña told EFE.

Democrats need the votes of at least 20 additional Republicans to have a chance of passing the Dream Act, Pelosi said.