NAAAP Opposes DACA Repeal And Urges Bipartisan Leadership and Compassion In Immigration Reform
Washington, D.C. (September 7, 2017). The National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) stands united and shares concerns from its membership in response to the President’s statement to initiate the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. We stand with business leaders and Asian/Pacific Islander non-profit leaders including the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) in supporting these Dreamers, as most Americans do, in their quest for the great American Dream. Together, we urge our national leaders to find a bipartisan solution that will preserve the spirit and tenets of DACA and engage in solutions for comprehensive immigration reform without compromising compassion and economic concerns.
The DACA program protects from deportation some 800,000 undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children and who meet certain education or military, work, and background check requirements. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 100,000 potential DACA beneficiaries are of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services estimates that almost 40,000 people of API heritage are covered under the DACA program. Ending DACA threatens the lives and livelihoods of dreamers, their families, and their local communities and economies. The Center for American Progress estimates that eliminating DACA would remove 685,000 productive, tax-paying workers from the nation’s economy, resulting in a loss of more than $463 billion from the US economy.
“We will work with our Nation’s leaders, other organizations, community outreach and legal assistance programs, and our membership to avoid negative disruptions to families and businesses that might be impacted by the wind down,” affirmed NAAAP National President and Intellectual Property Lawyer Elizabeth Yang. “As always we encourage everyone to become educated on the matter and lend their opinion and support to achieve a solution.”
“As an organization dedicated to leadership and diversity,” says NAAAP Interim Executive Director Cyndy Yu-Robinson, “NAAAP asks that this President and Congress lead all Americans in common sense and common ground solutions for immigration reform.”