{"id":83041,"date":"2017-07-23T21:32:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T01:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=83041"},"modified":"2017-07-23T15:20:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T19:20:03","slug":"83041","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=83041","title":{"rendered":"Schneiderman sends letter to Trump: “We stand ready to defend New York’s dreamers’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Twenty attorneys general: Mr. President, it\u2019s time to affirm your commitment to the \u201cIncredible Kids\u201d to handle this issue \u201cwith heart\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today joined California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and 18 attorneys general in\u00a0sending a letter<\/a>\u00a0to President Trump urging him to maintain and defend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In the letter, the attorneys general explain how DACA has benefited their states and the nation as a whole and call on Trump to fulfill his public commitment to Dreamers.<\/p>\n

In New York, there are 41,000 dreamers enrolled in the DACA program. Together, they contribute $140 million in state and local taxes annually\u00a0and earn $6,000 more annually than those who are not enrolled or eligible for the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese hardworking Dreamers have played by the rules, paid their taxes and have earned the right to continue living and working in our great country. We need comprehensive immigration reform in this country, but in the meantime, we need to maintain common sense programs like DACA that empower our young people to pursue the American Dream,\u201d said Schneiderman. \u201cMy fellow attorneys general and I urge President Trump to stick by his pledge and stand behind New York\u2019s Dreamers.”<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump says we should treat DACA grantees \u2018with heart\u2019 \u2013 and I agree. The President should defend this vital initiative that benefits families, communities and economies in California and across the country,\u201d\u00a0said Becerra.\u00a0\u201cInstead of frightening kids, we should empower them to fulfill their potential. After all, our young people are this nation\u2019s most precious natural resource. Anything that harms them harms all of us. That\u2019s why I will do everything in my power as Attorney General to defend DACA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since DACA\u2019s inception five years ago, nearly 800,000 young immigrants who were brought to this country as children have been granted DACA status after paying application fees, submitting to and passing background checks and applying for work permits:<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. <\/em>President, now is the time to affirm the commitment you made, both to the \u2018incredible kids\u2019 who benefit from DACA and to their families and communities, to handle this issue \u2018with heart.\u2019 You said Dreamers should \u2018rest easy.\u2019 We urge you to affirm America\u2019s values and tradition as a nation of immigrants and make clear that you will not only continue <\/em>DACA, but that you will defend it,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0wrote the attorneys general. \u201cThe cost of not doing so would be too high for America, the economy, and for these young people. For these reasons, we urge you to maintain and defend DACA, and we stand in support of the effort to defend DACA by all appropriate means.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The letter refutes arguments set forth by those opposing DACA and threatening litigation, saying they are \u201cwrong as a matter of law and policy,\u201d and urges the President not to \u201ccapitulate\u201d to their demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cDACA is consistent with a long pattern of presidential exercises of prosecutorial discretion,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0wrote the attorneys general.\u00a0\u201cDACA sensibly guides immigration officials\u2019 exercise of their enforcement discretion and reserves limited resources to address individuals who threaten our communities, not those who contribute greatly to them. Challenges have been brought against the original DACA program, including in the Fifth Circuit, but none have succeeded.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Joining Schneiderman and Becerra in sending the letter are attorneys general from\u00a0Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty attorneys general: Mr. President, it\u2019s time to affirm your commitment to the \u201cIncredible Kids\u201d to handle this issue \u201cwith heart\u201d Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today joined California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and 18 attorneys general in\u00a0sending a letter\u00a0to President Trump urging him to maintain and defend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s43meu-83041","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Attorny_General_Eric_T_Schneiderman.jpg?fit=260%2C221&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}