- Matt Soerenes is the USDirector of Church Mobilization
for World Relief and anadvocate for immigrants,
including Dreamers.
Matt, thanks for joining us.
- Yeah, thank you for having me.
- This ruling appears tobe good news for Dreamers,
but not a long-term solution.
How do you see it?
- Yeah, I think that's exactly right.
This is the decision that I think
most Dreamers would've hoped for
and many of them have been praying for.
It says that, for the momentat least, the DACA program,
the Deferred Action forChildhood Arrivals, is alive
and they can continue torenew work authorization
and be protected from deportation.
But it's not a permanent solution.
The court's opinion makesclear that this is basically
on a sort of anadministrative technicality
and it would still be possiblefor this administration
or for a future administrationto end the DACA program
for other reasons, so it'sstill very much something
that we believe Congress needsto resolve with legislation.
- Yeah, let's talk about that.
What are your thoughts onwhat might happen next?
Are you hoping thatCongress will take action?
You said that.
What do you hope Congress will do?
- I mean, there islegislation before Congress.
This is not a new issue.
It's something that's been debated
for more than a decade now in Congress.
There's proposals such aswhat's called the DREAM Act
where this term, Dreamers,actually comes from.
We should basically say that,
if people were brought tothis country as children,
let's say before their 16th birthday,
they meet certain qualifications,
no serious criminal issues,
they'd be eligible fora temporary legal status
and then, if they can meetfurther qualifications
like showing they're enrolled in college
or military service, they couldearn permanent legal status.
That'd be one possibility.
There may be other ways to do that.
But some way or another,
we think that Congress needsto, on a bipartisan basis,
affirm that these youngpeople, who have been,
at this point, lawfullyresiding in our country,
working lawfully, payingtaxes for several years,
should be able to stayhere with their families,
with their communities,with their local churches.
And we hope Congress
won't see this decisionas an out for them,
but actually will moreurgently take this up.
- We mentioned earlier thatso many DACA recipients
are essential workers, andthat includes healthcare.
What might happen if the Trumpadministration goes forward
and ends the DACA program?
- Yeah, so if the administration would,
through some more process,end the DACA program,
I'm sure there'd be someadditional legal challenges to that
and it wouldn't be politically popular.
The polls show that
roughly three out of fourwhite evangelical Christians
support allowing these people to stay,
as do the majority of all Americans.
But if that would happen, itcould be a serious hardship,
especially, for example, for hospitals
who are right now dealingwith the COVID-19 pandemic
and who rely on these young people
who are educated, who areplaying essential roles,
but whom they would not belegally allowed to employ
if that work authorization was revoked.
So I'm praying that doesn't happen,
but also praying thatCongress will step in
before that could happen.
- Many think this ruling willelevate immigration, that is,
as a campaign issue.
What are your thoughts there?
- Well my hope would be that,on both sides of the aisle,
there would be an agreementthat this particular issue's
actually sort of the low-hanging fruit,
that we have young people whodidn't even make the choice
to come to this country, theywere brought here as children,
who are already contributing,who see this as their country,
who want desperately to be Americans.
I hope that isn't acontroversial campaign issue
but something both sides could agree on.
And frankly, I thinkit underscores the need
for broader reform.
When you have someone who cameto this country as an adult,
that's a different situation.
It does require a different response.
But still, there's peoplewho've been here 20 or 30 years.
What we've said at World Relief
and some of our other evangelical partners
is there ought to be a way for those folks
who came as adults to make restitution,
to pay a fine for havingviolated immigration law,
and then if they canshow they've satisfied
other requirements, they'd beallowed to stay permanently,
become lawful permanentresidents, and we think that that,
and eventually citizens, if they can go
through the normalprocess for citizenship.
We think that would be a goodway to both honor the law
and to keep families together.
And I hope that's not adivisive political statement
but something that people on all sides
of the political spectrumcould agree upon.
- All right, Matt Soerens, the US Director
of Church Mobilization for World Relief.
Thanks for your time, Matt.
