Press Releases

Today, Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24) announced he signed a bipartisan discharge petition to force a long-overdue vote on the House Floor to protect America’s DACA recipients, including the estimated 7,200 eligible DACA recipients on the Central Coast.

“DACA recipients on the Central Coast are living in a perpetual state of uncertainty while court rulings have temporarily allowed DACA renewals to continue,” said Carbajal.  “This bipartisan action sends a strong message to Republican House leadership that Americans overwhelmingly want Congress to find a permanent legislative solution. There are many good bipartisan proposals introduced so the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients who have grown up in this country, gone to school, and paid their taxes are allowed to remain in the only home they’ve known. I am confident that legislation to protect these young people will pass overwhelmingly if brought to the Floor. Speaker Ryan must stop playing partisan political games with the future of these youth and allow us a vote.”

A February Harvard CAPS-Harris survey found that 76 percent of voters say that those who were eligible for protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program should be given a pathway to U.S. citizenship. That figure includes 63 percent of Republicans.

This discharge petition would force a House vote on bills to protect Dreamers, including the bipartisan the Dream Act of 2017 H.R. 3440 and the bipartisan USA Act of 2018 H.R. 4796.  The proposal receiving the most votes on the Floor would be adopted, under a “queen-of-the-hill” procedure.

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