Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten on White House ‘Wish List’ for Negotiations on the Future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program

Hopes of a deal to protect Dreamers—young immigrants brought to this country as children—diminished as President Trump suggested he would use them as pawns to secure funding for a border wall, crack down on minors fleeing violence in Central America, and curb federal grants to sanctuary cities.

WASHINGTON—“What happened to President Trump’s pledge to ‘deal with DACA with heart’? Or the ‘deal’ he made with Democrats? These proposals are simply a reprise of the worst aspects of the Trump campaign's anti-immigrant and anti-refugee scapegoating—reasserted, one assumes, to make Dreamers pawns in a power game. It is exactly why people hate Washington, D.C., politics: Instead of solving problems like what will happen to the 800,000 young Americans covered by DACA—who are learning in, working in and completely woven into the country that is their home—they are held hostage as a way to make our broken immigration system even worse.

“A nation built and enriched by immigrants should welcome those pursuing the American dream, not pull the ladder up behind us. It's time to demonstrate the best of America—not the worst—and pass the bipartisan Dream Act.”