On Sept. 5, the Trump Administration announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would end in 2018 unless Congress enacted legislation to encode into law the protections afforded by DACA.
DACA protects children of undocumented immigrants from deportation but these protections exist only in an executive order issued by President Barak Obama rather than in formal legislation.
More than 22,000 New Jersey residents are afforded the protection of DACA. These residents have lived here virtually all of their lives and have become engrained in our communities. Like the rest of our citizens, they work here and they pay taxes here.
The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce joins with the U.S Chamber of Commerce and companies such as Microsoft, Verizon, IBM, and Hewlett Packard in urging the Trump Administration and Congress to work quickly to craft the required legislation that reflects basic American fairness and recognizes the value of DACA children's contributions to New Jersey and the nation.
