†† NATIONAL NEWS
similar campaigns. “As a nation, we have a moral and humanitarian obligation to Dreamers,” Vasquez wrote. In a recent column, Archbishop José Gomez expressed concern for the estimated 125,000 DACA recipients who live within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, all of whom could face deportation when the program ends in March. “It would be cruel to punish them for the wrongs of their parents, deporting them to countries of origin that they have never seen, where they may not even know the language,” Archbishop Gomez wrote. The archbishop called for systematic immigration reform, explaining that most DACA recipients have not experienced a healthy U.S. immigration system in their lifetime. “This debate is passionate and partisan, as it should be. Systematic reform of our
immigration policy is absolutely vital to Immigrants rights activists. our nation’s future. And we need to have Ryan Rodrick Beiler, Shutterstock this conversation. But Congress needs to separate the conversation about DACA from these larger issues.” Deportation of DACA recipients, Gomez said, “would lead to a humanitarian crisis.” The DACA program postponed deportation of undocumented immigrants under the age of 30, who had been brought to the U.S. before the age of 16 and lived in the U.S. since June 2007. DACA participants are eligible to apply for work permits, obtain social security numbers, and, in most cases, apply for a driver’s license. In 2017, a group of business leaders explained that if DACA recipients were deported, “our economy would lose $460.3 billion from the national GDP and $24.6 billion in Social Security and Medicare tax contributions.” February 2018 | South Texas Catholic 23