Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff, during a campaign event on Sunday, said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must make sure that the so-called 'Dreamers' are paid minimum wage in the US.
He expressed his support toward the Dreamers, a nickname for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), when questioned by a woman who identified herself as a Dreamer.
“Dreamers, DACA recipients are every bit as American as any of us, and I will have your back in the US Senate,” Ossoff said. "In Georgia’s agricultural sector, the campesinos [farm workers] who work in the fields, enduring some of the most brutal conditions of labor anywhere in this country to keep America fed, paid less than the minimum wage, [are] often subject to abuse by employers. When federal agents arrive at one of these farms it should be to make sure people are being paid the minimum wage, working in humane conditions."
DACA, created in 2012 by the administration of former US President Barack Obama, allows those brought in to the US illegally as minors to remain in the country. Since 2017, DACA has been continuously attacked by the Trump administration, with the sitting president insisting that the program was unconstitutional and trying to end it through the use of the Supreme Court. His attempts, however, have been fruitless, as SCOTUS ruled in June that Trump did not follow the necessary procedures.
Ossoff, along with fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock, is running for the Senate seats in Georgia against GOP incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loefller. Georgia's runoff election is scheduled for 5 January, and its outcome will decide which US political party has the majority vote in the US Senate.