PORTLAND, Ore. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley met with DREAMers and DACA advocates Friday morning to hear personal stories.
The get-together place at the Catholic Charities Clark Family Center in Southeast Portland.
DREAMers are undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children, and protected under the DACA program.
President Trump says he will end DACA in March, and until that time, gave Congress a chance to come up with immigration reform legislation.
There are nearly 11,000 DREAMers in Oregon, and 800,000 across the country. The Democratic senators said they will push for a bi-partisan bill to protect them.
“I just want to stress too how urgent this is, we have this window of time,” said Senator Merkley. “We cannot let the bells ring in the New Year without ringing the bell on getting this bill signed into law. It’s completely unacceptable that we have placed them in this limbo, so we will be fighting to do everything we can.”
“What we are going to push for is a bi-partisan bill that says that these youngsters have done nothing wrong,” said Senator Wyden. “The bottom line for me, I see these youngsters as part of Oregon’s dream team .”