WASHINGTON, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - The current immigration system in the United States is inhumane, according to managing director of United We Dream, Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez.
“Definitely, the immigration system is inhuman and does not help undocumented people. It, in many ways is to the detriment of the economy of the country,” Rodriguez told RIA Novosti during a Friday conference call on the two year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “[We] have been pushing the President to extend administration relief to other parts of the undocumented population, like he did with DREAMers [beneficiaries of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act].”
The DACA program, which was renewed by the Obama administration, allows a two-year renewable reprieve from the threat of deportation for unauthorized immigrants under the age of 31. DACA advocates say that the program has helped over a half million undocumented immigrants continue their education, get a job and “come out of the shadows.” Critics of DACA, like Senator Ted Cruz, blame the deferred action legislation for the current border crisis where over 37,000 youth crossed the border into the US from Central American countries in 2014.
“Republicans have not got anything,” argued Rodriguez, who clarified that the DACA program does not benefit anyone who entered the country after 2007. “As a matter of fact, the only policy they have is mass deportation.”
United We Dream and other pro-immigration groups are hopeful for administrative intervention to continue the DACA program, threatened with defunding by Republicans. Obama has stated repeatedly that he will use executive authority to handle the immigration issues which have come to a virtual standstill in the US Congress. “We don’t know the details about what President Obama will do,” noted Rodriguez. “We are working to push him so the greatest amount of undocumented people will benefit.”
