DACA supports survivors of domestic violence

Secondly, immigrant survivors and their children already often face threats of deportation from their partners if they try to leave. In fact, under the current administration, immigration arrests have increased 38 percent with more than half a million people in detention centers awaiting immigration hearings. These arrests and deportations rip families and communities apart, and Trump continues to use inflammatory, anti-immigrant rhetoric that is being repeated across the country. The president’s recent decision encourages further abuse and exploitation. Without congressional action to enact legislation in a timely manner, DACA recipients will be forced to live their lives in constant fear that they will be deported at any moment and separated from their families and communities.

Access to work authorization, driver’s licenses and education — opportunities available through DACA — increase a survivor’s economic independence. In one survey, three quarters of women in abusive relationships reported staying with their partner for economic reasons. A driver’s license provides a means of access to jobs, vocational programs and other educational opportunities, and decreases the ability of abusers to control and exploit immigrant survivors. Work authorization increases immigrant survivors’ economic security, helps survivors support their families and helps grow and support the economy of our nation.

Since its inception in 2012, DACA has provided nearly 800,000 young people in the United States the opportunity to pursue an education, obtain work authorization, start small businesses, serve in the military and make significant contributions to their communities. To be granted DACA, these young people passed extensive background checks and were required to be enrolled in school, graduate from high school or serve in the armed forces for our country.

The Violence Against Women Act, conceived by recent Vice President Joe Biden, has prevented abuse and exploitation, promoted public trust and made communities safer. DACA and other forms of immigration relief are critical to protecting our communities and helping survivors feel secure so that they can rebuild their lives and be economically self-sufficient. Furthermore, immigrant survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault often fear accessing help. Safeguarding DACA and other immigration relief will protect individuals from deportation and allow survivors and witnesses of crimes like domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking feel safe to report crimes to police without fear that seeking justice will put them at risk of being deported.

An estimated 685,000 DACA recipients are legally employed in and contributing to the U.S. economy. If DACA is allowed to lapse and Congress fails to authorize immigration reform that provides these undocumented immigrants a path to legal status, hundreds of thousands of individuals will be at greater risk of exploitation and abuse at work, local economies will suffer and our nation will lose billions in GDP over the next decade. Low wages and wage theft, as well as unsafe working conditions — including sexual harassment and violence and human trafficking — are rife in many low-wage industries that employ high numbers of undocumented immigrants.

Denying legal status and a permanent pathway to citizenship for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who came here as children with their families, and who call the United States home, is not only irresponsible, it is dangerous. Without it, the president could well have blood on his hands as the existing barriers to leaving their relationships become even more daunting.

Where is the logic in this inhumane decision, one that will perpetuate and worsen the toll on families and communities already struggling. Congress should act swiftly to pass a standalone DREAM Act.

Melissa Lukin is the executive director of CORA, Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse, based in San Mateo.