Los Angeles, Calif., May 22, 2018 / 14:16 pm
Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles is asking Catholics in the archdiocese to contact their representatives urging a vote on bipartisan legislation to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
"The Dreamers have been waiting for decades for Congress to do its job and pass immigration reform legislation," said Gomez in a May 18 statement. "But for many years now, reform has been blocked in the House for political reasons by a minority of lawmakers."
"This is not about Republicans or Democrats," the archbishop said, noting that more than 75 percent of Americans support offering permanent legal status to DACA recipients. "It is about right and wrong. People's lives are in the balance."
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was an executive action created by President Barack Obama that granted protection from deportation as well as job permits to people who were brought to the United States illegally as children. DACA recipients, also known as "Dreamers," have to register each year with the program.