WASHINGTON, DC – FWD.us Government Relations Manager and DACA recipient Maria Praeli issued the following statement today after joining other DACA recipients, including essential workers in healthcare and education, to meet with President Biden in the Oval Office:

“I am enormously grateful to President Biden and his team for taking the time today to hear from – and truly listen to – DACA recipients like me in the Oval Office. To know that the President of the United States wants to hear our stories and understand what our lives are like, and how we and our families have struggled with the broken immigration system, is deeply meaningful. It’s meaningful, too, that we were able to be candid with the President – that as thankful as we are to have been eligible for DACA, the past four years have made painfully clear how tenuous that protection is: our futures were threatened by the people who worked in this very building, by the person who sat in his chair. And our stability is threatened still today by the pending decision of a judge who sits in a courtroom in Texas, determining our fate.

“Our lives have been in limbo for far too long. Every day that goes by without Congress passing permanent legislative protections – for Dreamers and DACA recipients like me, TPS holders, farmworkers, and the entire undocumented population – is a day that hurts all of us. It is incredibly painful for our individual lives, for our families who live in fear of being separated from our loved ones, and for our country every day that Congress fails to act. I’m encouraged that our meeting with President Biden today made even clearer the incredibly high stakes of permanently protecting immigrants from deportation – and I believe he’ll do everything he can to make urgent action possible.”

Background
President Biden’s meeting today with DACA recipients reflects that the Administration is leaning in on immigration reform centered on a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders, farmworkers, and other undocmented immigrants because they know this is not only good policy, but good politics. Earlier this month, a number of immigration advocacy organizations, including FWD.us, announced a $50 million campaign to promote support for legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship, which remains one of the most popular issues with voters of all backgrounds across the country.

More coverage on President Biden’s meeting with DACA recipients is available on MSNBC, NBC News, ABC News and Telemundo.

To speak with FWD.us Government Relations Manager Maria Praeli or other Dreamers who met with President Biden today, please contact press@fwd.us.