White House official touts DACA changes during visit to Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- To prove his point at an immigration roundtable event Monday, White House Senior Advisor Tom Perez turned to trivia. He read a quote from a speech delivered by a former U.S. president, then asked the room if anyone knew who said it.
"If we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost," the excerpt concluded.
After a pause, one person offered the answer: Ronald Reagan. It came in one of the two-term Republican's final presidential speeches in January 1989.
Perez used Reagan's speech in an attempt to show today's Republican Party what's blocking progress toward modernizing the nation's immigration laws. He said that lack of bipartisanship left the Biden administration no choice but to pursue an executive order in June to ease the process for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, seeking to gain permanent legal status.
The policy benefits a group of people often referred to as Dreamers, noncitizens who came to the U.S. illegally at a young age but have lived most of their lives in the country.
"Our immigration system is broken, and our politics is broken," Perez said.
The June executive order allows Dreamers to apply for a permanent visa if they've lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years and are married to a U.S. citizen. Under the order, applicants no longer have to leave the country in order to obtain permanent legal status; previously, they had to return to their country of origin as part of the process.
Forward Latino, which hosted the event at Milwaukee Area Technical College's Walker Square campus, made an economic case for making it easier for Dreamers to receive permanent visas.
"So, if we really want to grow our economy and attract new businesses here, we need the employment to do that," Forward Director President Darryl Morin said. "And we have this group of talented individuals ready to step in and start delivering immediately."
Republicans have long argued changes to legal immigration laws cannot happen until the U.S. first does a better job of securing its southern border.
At the state fair Saturday, Eric Hovde, the GOP candidate seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, described DACA policy as "a tricky issue." Hovde said he did not want to expand protections to Dreamers without broader changes happening to immigration law first.
"I'm very sympathetic to those children, but there's no way we can go through a legalization process of those kids in DACA until we get significant changes in the immigration process," Hovde said.
As for the situation at the southern border, data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show a record-high number of monthly migrant encounters back in December with more than 300,000. Since then, there's been a steep decline. The most recent numbers are available for June, and that monthly total of 130,419 encounters was the fewest since February 2021, President Biden's second month in office.
Ald. Jose Perez, president of the Milwaukee Common Council, said he would support federal legislation that enhances border security and adds resources for screening immigrants seeking legal status.
"I do, and I also want to see people come through the system, not wait 10-15 years," he said. "And it be such a financial burden that people are afraid to even begin the process."
September will mark seven years since former president Donald Trump's administration sought to end the DACA policy in 2017. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration in 2020, keeping DACA in place.
The Biden administration estimates about 500,000 people are eligible to take advantage of the eased permanent visa process. Those seeking to apply can do so beginning on Aug. 19.