House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Protecting Dreamers and TPS Recipients
March 06, 2019

The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony this morning from immigrants protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy and the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, along with advocates working on their behalf and others who deal with immigration issues. 

In their opening statements, Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Ranking Member Doug Collins (R-GA) laid out the positions of their respective parties, familiar by now after months of back-and-forth over the Trump administration’s immigration proposals. Collins and other Republican committee members expressed tentative support for some protections for Dreamers, but only in exchange for funding for the president’s border wall and other efforts to impose strict control over immigration. Democrats have made clear they will not approve such an exchange. 

In September 2017, President Trump attempted to end DACA, which has shielded from deportation more than 700,000 Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. Federal courts have blocked that move and the Supreme Court has not yet taken up the case, meaning DACA remains intact but in legal limbo, only allowing for renewals but not new registrations. Legislators briefly discussed including permanent protections for Dreamers during negotiations to end the government shutdown earlier this year, but the talks went nowhere. 

The Trump administration also has attempted to phase out the TPS program, which has allowed more than 300,000 individuals from countries affected by war and natural disasters to legally live and work in the United States. A federal judge blocked that decision for four countries—El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan—prompting the administration to postpone its efforts to end the program for two other countries, Honduras and Nepal. That decision has also been tied up in the courts, leaving TPS recipients in limbo. 

In a statement, ACE President Ted Mitchell applauded the committee for taking up these issues and expressed optimism that a new version of the Dream Act scheduled to be introduced March 12 will finally address these important issues. 

“When the president revoked DACA, he called on lawmakers to pass legislation to protect Dreamers. It is clear that in Congress, and across the nation, there is widespread and bipartisan support for doing just that,” Mitchell said. “We hope that this hearing, and the prospect of the introduction in the House next week of the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, leads to concrete legislative action once and for all to safeguard the futures of Dreamers. We stand ready to work with members of the House and Senate on this vital issue.”

In often emotional testimony, DACA recipients Jin Park, a Harvard University undergraduate and Rhodes scholar, and Yazmin Irazoqui-Ruiz, a medical student at the University of New Mexico, and others told the committee about the experience of living with an uncertain legal status, including how it affects access to higher education. Their supporters discussed the contributions these students make to the country and what the United States stands to gain by protecting them on a permanent basis.

Democrat Greg Stanton of Arizona said that it was “really heartbreaking” that Irazoqui-Ruiz had to leave their home state to attend medical school elsewhere, because of a court ruling last year that DACA recipients would no longer be eligible for in-state tuition at Arizona's public colleges and universities. 

According to the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, 20 states and the District of Columbia allow in-state tuition to undocumented students. At the other end of the spectrum, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, and South Carolina have laws denying in-state tuition to undocumented residents.

Donald Graham, former publisher of The Washington Post and co-founder of TheDream.US, told the committee that “the budget hawks among you will be pleased to know that [the Dream and Promise Act] would make money for the United States; the Cato Institute estimates that the 700,000 DACA recipients will pay $92 billion in federal taxes in the next 10 years.” 

For more on DACA and the effort to provide a legislative solution for Dreamers, see the Protect Dreamers Higher Education Coalition web page