Readers Supportive of Mayor Krewson’s Advocating for a vote on DACA

Many of you might think of immigration issues and those who came here as kids as something for border cities/states — like San Diego, California. The numbers are smaller, but it’s an issue right here in Missouri:

In Missouri, 3,500 young people have registered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. They want Congress to pass a long-term solution that would allow them to stay in the country. (St. Louis Public Radio)

When mayors have residents who are fearful of authorities it is good to find a way to reduce that fear — they’d be more likely to talk to the police about crimes they might have witnessed, for example. Not having families torn apart if one or both parents are detained/deported.

Here’s more:

What is a “Clean” Dream Act and Why Should You Support It?

1. A clean Dream Act would keep more families where they belong?—?together, by excluding any provisions that would harm our immigrant communities by increasing immigration detention, enforcement and deportation.
2. A clean Dream Act honors the voices and lived experiences of those in border communities by refusing further militarization of the U.S. southern border, including the use of drones, more agents or the expansion of a wall.
3. A clean Dream Act promotes the reunification of families by avoiding any changes in immigration law that would reduce current immigration pathways by expanding grounds of inadmissibility and removability or radically changing family-based petitions and the diversity visa lottery.
4. A clean Dream Act would uphold our values of offering humanitarian aid to those fleeing persecution or other dangers by safeguarding protections for unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers and others in need.
5. A clean Dream Act rejects any attempts to further scapegoat and demonize the immigrant community, whether through increased funding for policing of immigrant and communities of color, provisions falsely claiming to address gang violence that actually provide a license for racial profiling of immigrant youth, and the creation of new grounds for inadmissibility and deportation. (Medium)

A clean Dream Act would help St. Louis and other cities. In the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll less than a third didn’t think Krewson should be adding her name to 100+ other mayors in support of a vote on the Dream Act:

Q: Agree or disagree: St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson shouldn’t be pushing for changes to federal immigration policy.

• Strongly agree 9 [31.03%]
• Agree 0 [0%]
• Somewhat agree 0 [0%]
• Neither agree or disagree 2 [6.9%]
• Somewhat disagree 2 [6.9%]
• Disagree 1 [3.45%]
• Strongly disagree 15 [51.72%]
• Unsure/No Answer 0 [0%]

These people have been here since they were kids, they don’t know how to live in the countries they came from. Let them stay and work toward citizenship. Keep their families intact.

— Steve Patterson