EPPN calls for temporary halt to student deportations
Episcopal News Service. April 30, 2010 [043010-01]
ENS staff
The Episcopal Public Policy Network issued a policy alert April 29 urging Episcopalians to advocate for a temporary halt to deportation of students who would qualify to continue their studies in the United States under the terms of the proposed Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM).
The alert asks Episcopalians to write to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, telling her that "withholding legal status from these children not only hurts them, but it deprives America of future generations of dedicated citizens, innovators, entrepreneurs and public servants."
The temporary halt to deportations would be "a step in the right direction" towards "fair and humane immigration reform," the suggested text of the letter to Napolitano says.
The alert said the bill (S.729/H.R.1751) is "bipartisan legislation that would provide the opportunity to young people with good moral character, who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and graduated from high school to legalize their status." A list of the bill's Senate sponsors and co-sponsors is here and the House's here.
Students would qualify for six-year conditional permanent resident status if they entered the United State before age 16, lived in the U.S. for at least five years before passage of the DREAM Act, and earned a high school diploma, according to the EPPN alert. Permanent resident status would be available upon completion of two years of higher education or military service, and the terms of the proposed law preclude students with criminal records or dishonorable discharges from the military.
"Instead of punishing students for actions taken on their behalf and beyond their control, the DREAM Act would provide a tough but fair process by which they could gain legal status," the alert said.
More information from EPPN about the DREAM Act is available here.