Issued September 05, 2017
WASHINGTON—In response to President Trump’s decision to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in six months, SEIU International Executive Vice President and iAmerica Action president Rocio Sáenz issued the following statement:
“We are saddened and outraged to see the president crush the hopes and dreams of nearly 800,000 young people who are lawfully living and contributing to our society, working to provide for their families, and planning for their future. Now, they are deportable to lands they may barely remember.
“This shameful move is cruel and only seeks to fuel Trump’s anti-immigrant and racist agenda.
“But let it be clear, SEIU members and our communities won’t let President Trump’s actions stop us from standing up for immigrant families. At this difficult moment, we vow to stand together, mobilize on an unprecedented scale to resist these racist attacks against all communities of color. United, we’ll use this fight to build our movement so we can drive a turnaround in 2018 to change the direction of the country and win an America where immigrant families and all working people have a say at work and in our political system through unions, and where every family and community have the opportunity to thrive.
“I call on every member of Congress to pledge to take immediate action and support legislation to protect immigrant families and our communities from Trump's mass deportation plan. We all must resist this racist attack on our communities and work towards common-sense policies that put America’s DREAMers and immigrant families on a path to full legal status, not mass deportation."