Along with many other religious leaders in our community, I was grateful for the Supreme Court’s recent decision that allows Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to remain in effect. However, we need to be clear: The ruling does not end or reduce the ongoing need for immigration reform in our country.
This decision did not determine the future or legal status of DACA recipients — our neighbors, friends and co-workers whose protection from deportation remains temporary. The court did not end the possibility of deporting Dreamers in the future. Their status remains tenuous. The court simply ruled that the process the Trump administration used for ending DACA was faulty.
In other words, DACA recipients across the country were saved this round by a technicality. They remain vulnerable to a future action that would crush the lives they have built and upheave the communities that depend on them.
Most Americans know that deporting Dreamers is unethical and want to see the law reflect our values. Many of our religious traditions call us to recognize the divine image in other people, to welcome the foreigners in our communities and to care for the marginalized.
Our religious values call us to work together for immigration reform and for permanent status for Dreamers. Support spans the political spectrum, too: 69% of people who voted for Trump in 2016 think Dreamers should be protected from deportation.
Although the ethical implications are reason enough to protect Dreamers, our economy also depends on them. Deporting all DACA recipients would cost the federal government $60 billion, along with a $280 billion reduction in economic growth over the next decade, according to estimates from the Cato Institute.
Conversely, in those same 10 years, current DACA recipients will contribute an estimated $433.4 billion to our nation’s GDP and $12.3 billion in taxes to Social Security and Medicare, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. If we allow Dreamers in the U.S. to continue to work and pay their fair share of taxes, we’ll ensure that they continue to contribute to our communities.
Of course, immigrants in our communities contribute so much more to the thriving of our nation than dollars can measure. Many are doctors, nurses and other health care providers. A recent study found that 29,000 DACA recipients were working on the health care front lines combating COVID-19.
Imagine if 29,000 healthcare providers suddenly disappeared from our hospitals and clinics. Yet that would be just the tip of the iceberg. What if the 12,800 DACA recipients working in farming and agriculture jobs and 11,600 working in food manufacturing were suddenly gone? The bouts of empty toilet paper shelves in our grocery stores would be nothing compared to the empty meat freezers and vacant shelves of bread, milk and eggs. It would be disastrous. And only a technicality averted this threat.
It is time for all Americans to recognize that protecting our immigrant communities is both essential to our collective well-being and a moral obligation. We cannot sit idly by as Dreamers’ status in our country remains uncertain. Besides, the problems we face are much bigger than just the status of Dreamers. We need to demand that Congress work together for broad immigration reform now. Not next term, not next president. That has gone on far too long.
We have been close to a solution for Dreamers several times. It can happen now if the American people demand it. A phone call is all it takes to ask your senators and representatives how they are working for reform. Tell them to act now.
Rev. Dr. Chris Fillingham is the pastor of Dayspring Baptist Church in St. Louis. He has a Doctorate in Leadership and Spiritual Formation and a Master of Divinity in Global Christianity.