My Interview on Telemundo on DREAMers

Dear Friend,

There have been recent alarming reports that President Trump may take steps to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children--also known as DREAMers--to apply for temporary protection from deportation. Repealing the DACA program would have a profound impact on some of our best and brightest young people.

I hope you can take a moment to watch and share an interview I did this week with Albuquerque's Telemundo 2 KASA on why we need to protect DREAMers.

VIDEO: Intrevista con Telemundo 2 KASA sobre la importancia de proteger

Since the Obama Administration started DACA, nearly a million DREAMers across the country have come out of the shadows because of the promise that DACA represented, including more than 7,000 from New Mexico. These are some of our brightest students and veterans who volunteered their personal information to apply for the DACA Program. DREAMers want to earn an education, contribute to our economy, and give back to their communities and their country. I would argue that most don't know how to be anything but American.

These individuals came forward based on the promise that our government would not deport them and provided personal information about themselves and their families. To use this against them would be an extraordinary breach of trust by our government. Earlier this year, I introduced the Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act to safeguard the private information-such as addresses and telephone numbers-of DREAMers.

Just today, I sent a letter to the President calling on him to use his executive authority to the greatest extent possible to protect the DACA program.

Because we should never be a country that kicks out some of our best and brightest students. We should not be a nation that tears families apart. I will not stand for policies that are contrary to our fundamental American ideals and values. I know how hard immigrants work, how much they believe in this country, how much they're willing to give back, and how different my own life would be if America had turned my own father away when he immigrated here as a young boy.

Sincerely,

MARTIN HEINRICH

United States Senator