Sister Donna Markham OP, PhD, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, along with Bishop Joe S. Vasquez, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, and Jeanne M. Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC), sent a letter to President Trump urging him to continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The letter points out that an estimated 800,000 young people have benefitted from the DACA program. Parishes, the Catholic Charities ministry, and CLINIC have worked with tens of thousands of DACA children, who have contributed to the U.S. economy, served in the U.S. military, and become leaders in local communities. President Trump’s decision to continue the program would ensure that young people can continue to work, study, and be protected from deportation while Congress debates broader legislative fixes to the broken immigration system.