September 5, 2017
Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a national nonprofit committed to building educational and economic opportunity for underserved populations in the United States. Our driving vision is to see the promise of education and economic mobility achieved for everyone in America—regardless of where they were born.
Nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants across the country have benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which enables Dreamers, as they are often called, to stay in the only country they know, and continue pursuing their educational and work aspirations.1 Without DACA, these young adults are at risk of losing their employment status and face the threat of deportation. This will halt any progress they have made toward moving up the socioeconomic ladder and contributing to the betterment of families, communities, and economies across America.
DACA permits undocumented youth access to better jobs and internships while in school, and permits undocumented graduates to find jobs that match their career interests and fields of study. Today, 97 percent of DACA recipients are in school or in the workforce. DACA recipients are vital to our workforce and economy—without them, the nation would lose roughly 685,000 workers from the economy, resulting in a loss of $460.3 billion from national GDP over the next 10 years.2 These individuals live and work in communities across our nation; they are our students, employees, business owners, and neighbors.
JFF believes strongly that Dreamers are a tremendous asset to the nation’s colleges, workforce, communities, and economy. We urge President Trump to reconsider and reverse the decision to terminate the DACA program. Further, we ask Congress to resolve this issue for good by advancing comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
Maria Flynn
President and CEO
Jobs for the Future
(1) Nicole Prchal Svajlenka, Tom Jawetz, and Angie Bautista-Chavez, “A New Threat to DACA Could Cost States Billions of Dollars,” Center for American Progress, July 21, 2017, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2017/07/21/436419/new-threat-daca-cost-states-billions-dollars/
(2) Ibid.
