US lawmakers ask Biden admn to protect 'documented dreamers' from deportation

Washington, June 26

A group of influential US lawmakers on Friday urged the Biden administration to take all necessary steps to prevent the deportation of 'documented dreamers'.

They are estimated to number around 2,00,000, a significant majority of whom are kids of H-1B visa-holding Indian professionals who are on the Green Card waiting list, that as of now is expected to last for decades.

Congresswoman Deborah Ross and Indian-American Congressman Dr Ami Bera led the group of 36 of their Congressional colleagues in the House of Representatives in sending a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in this regard.

The letter urges the DHS to strengthen protection for children and young adults who have grown up in the United States as dependents of long-term work visa holders - a group known as the documented dreamers.

Specifically, the letter recommends updating DACA criteria to include documented dreamers and adjusting the way that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determines an individual's age when he or she files for adjustment of status in order to protect more documented dreamers from aging out of the system.

The letter comes a week after a group of Indian youngsters from across the US, facing imminent prospects of deportation, lobbied with lawmakers at the Capitol Hill and met senior Biden administration officials at the White House appealing them to "let us stay in the US".

“Our nation benefits immensely from immigrants who come to work in fast-growing fields—in technology, medicine, engineering, and so many others,” said Congresswoman Ross. “The children of these workers, known as documented dreamers, grow up in the United States and are American in every way except on paper,” she said.

“We must ensure that these talented young people and their families are treated with dignity and respect,” she asserted.

Like communities across the US, Sacramento County is home to H-1B and other long-term visa holders who are neighbours, friends, educators, scientists, engineers, and doctors, and who contribute immensely to the country, said Congressman Bera.

“Yet, around 2,00,000 children of non-immigrant visa holders, who know America as their only home, are at risk of having to ‘self-deport' to a country that is not home and be separated from their families because of decades-long backlogs in the immigrant visa system,” he said.

“As a nation of immigrants, it is not who we are to turn our backs on those who call America home. That's why I'm proud to join Representative Ross in leading House Members in calling on the Biden administration to take action to provide protection for young people who have grown up in the United States as dependents of non-immigrant visa holders,” Bera said. PTI

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