NCCJ Stands with the Dreamers

September 16, 2017
Category: Public Policy
Tags: Community, Community-Building, Inclusion, Youth Leadership,

Infographic for DACA numbers stating, "25,100 DACA recipients in North Carolina. 42,000 people who meet the criteria for DACA. 60% DACA participation rate among Dreamers in NC. 689,800 DACA recipients in the United States. 1,326,000 people in the United States that meet DACA criteria. 52% DACA participation rate among Dreamers in United States."

NCCJ of the Piedmont Triad supports protections offering safety and opportunity for community members brought to the United States as children.

Our organization is dedicated to building compassionate and inclusive communities. We support public policies that promote fairness and justice for everyone, including the most vulnerable among us. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program did exactly that; it was created to protect people who were brought to the United States when they were children. NCCJ stands in solidarity with the “Dreamers” (the name given to these young people), and we wholeheartedly support the protections DACA offered them.

DACA has helped hundreds of thousands of young people across our country, including many here in our community. More than 27,000 North Carolinians have relied on DACA to safely attend school, go to work, and care for their families. Ending DACA protections will have devastating consequences, eliminating these basic yet essential protections and leading to the potential deportation of thousands of young people who have lived in the U.S. for most of their lives, making it the only home they really know. Several ANYTOWN graduates here in our community are among those at risk when DACA expires.

Supporting the Dreamers carries forward our community’s proud tradition of welcoming people from all backgrounds and cultures. Together, we can continue building a community based on inclusion and opportunity – a community where all people of goodwill are welcomed, respected, and encouraged to contribute to the common good.

Without a program like DACA, we deny Dreamers the ability to be fully engaged members of our community. We urge our neighbors and our elected officials to embrace the Dreamers and to support the passage of new legislation that offers them protections and opportunities no less than what DACA gave them.

Check out our infographic.