U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) joined U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and other Senate Democrats on Wednesday in introducing S. 229, the Protect DREAMer Confidentiality Act of 2017, a bill to safeguard the private information—such as addresses and telephone numbers—of the young immigrants brought here by their parents as infants or children who are known as DREAMers to ensure that they are not targeted by the Trump Administration for deportation.
The introduction of this bill comes as President Donald Trump has begun a series of executive actions on immigration that may affect the nearly 1 million DREAMers across the nation, including more than 7,000 in New Mexico, and their families. Other cosponsors of the bill include U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-NM), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
“Each and every day, honest, hardworking, and patriotic DREAMers make important contributions to our communities in Rhode Island and across the nation,” said Reed. “As I’ve long said, we need realistic and comprehensive immigration reform legislation. The President’s proposal to focus on these young people who were brought here by others isn’t comprehensive and it isn’t particularly realistic. This bill would offer a small measure of comfort for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working young people who stand to be torn from their families, their jobs, and the only lives they have ever known. I will continue to support DREAMers in Rhode Island and throughout the country.”
Specifically, S. 229 would protect the confidentiality of information submitted in requests for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) from disclosure to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Customs and Border Protection for any purpose other than implementing the DACA Program, unless there are national security concerns or other limited exceptions.
A copy of the bill is available here.
