In response to President Trump’s latest offer to end the ongoing government shutdown and provide some fleeting protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status recipients, Jobs With Justice has issued the following statement:
Jobs With Justice urges members of Congress to reject Donald Trump’s bid to add more than a million Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients to the list of hostages he has taken in an attempt to build his border wall. Trump previously said that more than 800,000 federal employees will not receive paychecks until he gets funding for his monument to racism and white supremacy along the U.S.-Mexico border. He has now said that he will give deportation protection to DACA and TPS holders only if Congress agrees to wall funding. However, the reprieve Trump’s offering is temporary and could very well be rescinded in the future.
Trump’s shutdown shows scorn for working people, taking away the livelihoods of federal employees and contractors and forcing all of us to deal with more dangerous air travel and less food safety inspections. He has now extended the disdain to long-term immigrants studying and working in the United States, people who Trump himself has put in danger by taking away legal status that previous administrations had given to DACA and TPS holders.
Jobs With Justice demands that rather than give in to Trump’s new ransom demand, Congress must do the business people sent them to do: The Senate must take up and immediately pass the bipartisan appropriations bills that will reopen the government and that Congress also must immediately pass bipartisan bills giving Dreamers and TPS recipients work authorization, protection from deportation, and a path to citizenship.
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