Senator has been an exceptional champion for our nation’s immigrants

The COVID-19 pandemic has left no one unscathed, including the vulnerable immigrant community among us. Over six million immigrants currently hold essential industry jobs, and are crucial to our health and economic response to COVID-19, yet are being left out of protections. At the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, I focus on economic justice and ensuring that all Alaskans can succeed. As such, I acutely understand the need to protect all Americans – regardless of immigration status – in the next relief package.

Congress has the opportunity to include economic protections for many who were left out of the CARES Act by providing stimulus checks to every person that has filed taxes in the U.S., including the spouses and children of American citizens. They can also allocate proper funding to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) and automatically extend the legal status of immigrants whose status expires this year.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients also need permanent protections from Congress. Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the program in June, the Trump administration recently announced closure of the program to new applicants and a renewal period of one year, rather than two, setting the stage to permanently end the program and putting DACA recipients at risk yet again.

Senator Murkowski has been an exceptional champion for our nation’s immigrants. I hope she supports them during this next round of negotiations and that she passes permanent Dreamers protections, to the benefit of all Alaskans and our economy.

David Song,

Douglas