A Look at H.R.6, the Dream and Promise Act of 2019
PRESIDENT TRUMP CREATED THE DACA AND TPS CRISIS
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Dreamers are young people who were brought to the U.S. as children through no fault of their own and know no other home than the U.S. In 2010, House Democrats passed the DREAM Act to provide a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers. However, Senate Republicans refused to take up and pass the bill. As a result of their inaction, President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in June 2012. The program required Dreamers to submit applications to immigration authorities, and in exchange, they received protection from deportation and a work permit. Thanks to these protections, these young people can enroll in higher education; work as teachers, paramedics, and other professional careers; serve in the military; buy homes; and contribute to their communities and the economy.
House Republicans took control of the House in January 2011, and for eight years did nothing to reform our broken immigration system. On September 5, 2017, President Trump terminated the DACA program, upending the lives of 800,000 Dreamers who call this country their home. Dreamers contribute to our economy: deporting Dreamers could mean 1,716 jobs lost per day and 300,000 people eliminated from the work force.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
TPS was first created by Congress in 1990 and offers protected status to migrants fleeing natural disasters and violent conflicts in their home nations.
Since 2017, President Trump has taken steps to roll back this program, sending immigrants back to their home countries even though there is no evidence that there have been concrete improvements in those countries.
The cost of rolling back TPS is projected to reach billions of dollars in GDP over the next decade.Deferred Enforced Departure (DED)
DED is a protected status authorized by the President. In 1991, Liberians received TPS status as a result of a seven-year civil war. Their TPS status was extended under both Republican and Democratic presidents until it expired in 2007. President George W. Bush used DED to extend their protection.
However, on March 27, 2018, President Trump removed DED status for 4,000 Liberians, sending them to a country they have not lived in for more than a decade and that is still recovering from the Ebola crisis.
ABOUT H.R. 6 – HOW THE DREAM AND PROMISE ACT SOLVES THIS CRISIS
H.R. 6 provides a permanent legislative solution to address the crisis created by the President when he ended DACA and took away TPS and DED protections for individuals covered by those programs.- Dreamers would earn conditional permanent resident status for ten years and void removal proceedings if they came to the U.S. at age 17 or younger and arrived at least four years before the enactment of the original DREAM Act, graduated from high school, have no serious convictions, and pass a background check.
- Dreamers would be eligible for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status if they complete two years at a U.S. higher education institution, serve two years in the military, or be steadily employed.
- Dreamers would gain access to federal financial aid and professional, commercial and business licenses.
- TPS or DED would be granted, and removal proceedings cancelled, if an individual was in the U.S. for three years before the Act’s enactment and had been eligible for TPS or DED status as of September 2016.
- When TPS is terminated, the bill requires a detailed report to be issued describing the qualitative and quantitative methods used to determine if the conditions of the recipient’s home country have improved.
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