“Arizona is in a global contest to attract and retain talent. To that end, providing permanent legal status to Dreamers makes sound economic sense.”
PHOENIX, AZ – A week after Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced a bipartisan framework for a lame-duck session Senate bill that would finally lay down a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 2 million Dreamers (those brought to the U.S. undocumented as children) and also enact border security measures, a coalition of Arizona business, faith and higher education leaders sent a letter (full text below) to Senator Kyrsten Sinema supporting her efforts and urging her to bring a solution across the finish line.
The letter stresses that supporting such legislation is not only the right thing to do for young people who have spent nearly their whole lives in Arizona; it’s also the smart economic thing to do for the state’s future.
The letter’s prominent Arizona signatories include: Arizona State University President Michael Crow; Northern Arizona University President José Luis Cruz Rivera; Phoenix College President Kimberly Britt; Benedictine University President Charles Gregory, Former Arizona State Senator and Zenni Home CEO Bob Worsley; Sunbelt Holdings Chairman & CEO John Graham; Greater Phoenix Chamber President & CEO Todd Sanders; Mesa City Mayor John Giles; and Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers.
FULL LETTER TEXT
Open Letter to Senator Sinema
The Honorable Kyrsten Sinema
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Sinema,
As higher education leaders, business leaders, employers, and Arizona voters, we are greatly encouraged by your efforts with Senator Tillis to find a bipartisan solution for our nation’s two million Dreamers and to ensure an orderly, safe, and secure border. (see: The Washington Post, December 5, 2022).
As recently demonstrated with passage of Proposition 308, which allows Arizona Dreamers to pay the same in-state tuition as their peers, Arizonans are ready for common sense solutions that protect Dreamers and strengthen our economy.
With the recent federal court rulings on the DACA program, Dreamers and those who employ them are bracing ourselves for a new reality. If the program is struck down, it will cause untold devastation not only for Dreamers and their families, but also for the industry sectors that have come to rely on their hard work. There are about two open jobs for every person out of work. Taking hundreds of thousands out of the labor force will further fuel inflation, exacerbate supply chain challenges, and tip the economy into recession.
Arizona is in a global contest to attract and retain talent. To that end, providing permanent legal status to Dreamers makes sound economic sense. Our policies must allow us to compete for the workers we need to fuel our economy and retain the young talent that already exists here but lacks the security of permanent legal status.
Dreamers are a critical and integral part of our state’s economy and workforce. In Arizona alone, there are close to 10,000 Dreamers pursuing higher education. DACA’s success has unleashed the economic potential of almost 37,000 Arizonans, allowing them to contribute to our economy, start families, buy homes, build businesses, and bring their talents to the industry sectors where they’re most needed.
Over the past year and a half, more than three quarters of DACA recipients in the workforce—343,000—were employed in jobs deemed essential by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Of this, 34,000 were healthcare workers providing patient care. Another 11,000 individuals were working in healthcare settings keeping these facilities functioning.
For more than a decade, DACA participants, their employers and employees, have been vulnerable to government indecision that has sown anxiety, instability, and legal limbo in their lives—and in our nation’s workforce.
At a time of widespread labor shortage and rising food and gas prices, we wholeheartedly support your efforts to find common sense solutions. Improving border security and providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers is not only morally right; it is also absolutely crucial to addressing labor shortages, reducing food prices and creating jobs for all American families.
Sincerely,
Michael Crow, President, Arizona State University
José Luis Cruz Rivera, President, Northern Arizona University
Kimberly Britt, President, Phoenix College
Charles Gregory, President, Benedictine University
Senator Bob Worsley, CEO, Zenni Home
Tyler Montague, President, Yes on 308
John Graham, Chairman and CEO, Sunbelt Holdings
Kathleen Graham
Mike Hoover, President & CEO, Sundt
David Adame, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chicanos Por La Causa Heather
Carter, Executive Vice President, Greater Phoenix Leadership
Todd Sanders, President and CEO, Greater Phoenix Chamber
John Giles, Mayor, Mesa
Rusty Bowers, Speaker, Arizona House of Representatives
Kimber Lanning, CEO, Local First Arizona
David Lujan, President and CEO, Arizona Center for Economic Progress
Joe Garcia, Executive Director, Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund
Stephanie Parra, Executive Director, ALL In Education
Paul Rockower, Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council of Phoenix
Caleb Campbell, Pastor, Desert Springs Bible Church
Rob Elias, President/CEO, Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Rev. Katie Sexton-Wood, Clergy, Arizona Faith Network
Jerry Hirsch, Executive, Jaren Corporation
Rebecca Gau, Executive Director, Stand for children AZ
Carolina Silva, Executive Director, Scholarships A-Z
Beth Lewis, Director, Save Our Schools Arizona
Erin Hart, Chief of Policy, Education Forward Arizona
Carolina Rodriguez-Greer, State Director, Mi Familia Vota
J. Doug Pruitt, Retired
Sheril Steinberg, Political & Advocacy Director, Mi Familia Vota
Andrew Stewart, IT consultant
Blake Sacha, President, Voter Choice Arizona
Sintra Hoffman, President and CEO, Westmarc
Mike Hutchinson, Executive Vice President, PHX East Valley Partnership
Laura Mitchell, Executive Director, The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation
Background
DACA’s success has unleashed the economic potential of almost 800,000 people, allowing them to contribute to our economy, start families, buy homes, access healthcare, build businesses, and bring their talents to the industry sectors where they’re most needed. Three quarters of DACA participants in the workforce—343,000 people—are essential workers. Of those, 34,000 provide healthcare services and 11,000 work tirelessly keeping our hospital and clinic facilities up and running. As our nation faces a teacher shortage, 20,000 DACA recipients are working with kids in classrooms across the country. About 100,000 DACA recipients work in the nation’s food supply chain—roles that are more important than they have ever been in the wake of COVID’s disruptions.
But for too long, DACA participants have been vulnerable to government indecision that has kept their lives in legal limbo and filled them with anxiety and uncertainty. And DACA’s strict timeframes omit thousands of individuals who need it. More than 427,000 undocumented students are currently enrolled in postsecondary institutions, and of these, less than half (181,000) are DACA-elligible. Similarly every year, nearly 100,000 undocumented students graduated U.S. high schools, but only one quarter are DACA-eligible.
DACA has been a transformative program for both its recipients and the country, demonstrating why expanding opportunities for immigrants is good for all of America—but it’s not enough. Now is the time to build on the success of DACA and pass bipartisan legislation that provides a path to citizenship to all Dreamers, with or without DACA. The future of our country depends on it.
ABOUT
ABIC Action is the political arm of the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), a bipartisan coalition of over 1,200+ CEOs, business owners, and trade associations across 16 mostly red and purple states. ABIC Action promotes common sense immigration reform that advances economic competitiveness, provides companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, and citizens.
President’s Alliance for Higher Education and Immigration is an alliance of American college and university leaders dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact our students, campuses and communities.
TheDream.US works to help 6,000 highly motivated DREAMers graduate from college with career-ready degrees. DREAMers are immigrant youth who came to this country at a very young age without documentation.