The following article is an opinion piece and reflects the views of only the author and not those of AllOnGeorgia.
By: Charles Kuck
This year has certainly opened the door to new challenges. Here in Georgia and in states across the nation, community and business leaders as well as elected officials on all levels are focused on getting through the public health and economic crises at hand.
While we all are grappling with the uncertainty that is brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, millions in the immigrant community are facing unprecedented hostility and additional barriers to critical resources needed to get through this crisis.
Just recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, giving President Trump the authority to deport nearly 400,000 TPS holders, many of whom live in Georgia, ripping them apart from their families and taking with them their economic contributions that we desperately need.
Through it all, the Trump Administration has been relentlessly working to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. And while his initial three-year attempt was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court this June, temporarily allowing states to continue benefiting from DACA recipients’ contributions and continuing the work and study authorizations the program provides, the president has continued efforts to terminate the program, even though the majority of Trump voters are in favor of protecting Dreamers.
Georgia is home to 21,000 DACA recipients, about 5,600 of whom are part of the essential workforce combatting the coronavirus. Further, ninety-six percent of DACA recipients across the nation are either employed or enrolled in school, and they contribute billions of dollars in local, state and federal taxes each year. Here in Georgia, DACA recipients contribute an estimated $78 million in annual state and local taxes, and an estimated $105.8 million in annual federal taxes.
The President announced he is renewing attempts to terminate the program and taking steps to wind down the program through 2021 with immediate plans to reject applications and limit renewals to one year. But it doesn’t stop there. He also released a memo to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census, a move that could jeopardize representation of states in Congress, and flip-flopped on banning international students from entering the U.S. to attend our universities where only online courses are offered, among other harmful policies.
As a nation of hope and opportunity, these threats to immigration go against our fundamental values. For decades, Georgia has been cultivating a business environment that encourages growth and innovation, even earning the spot as the top state for doing business in for the sixth year in a row. And while this has been threatened due to the pandemic, a critical part of our previous and future success involves the development of a robust workforce and inclusion of immigrants in our communities and economy.
It is time for Congress to act by enacting pro-immigration reform, including permanent protections for Dreamers and TPS holders via legislation such as the American Dream and Promise Act, and for Georgians to elect legislators who have our best interests and those of our immigrant neighbors in mind, as they go hand in hand.
The chaos, dysfunction and disorder of our nation’s immigration system is putting all of our communities and workforce at risk. We need to create a system that strengthens our immigrant community and their contributions in agriculture, healthcare, sanitation, construction, education and beyond. This will subsequently benefit our entire state. It’s time to put politics aside and move forward.
Charles Kuck is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kuck Baxter Immigration and oversees its worldwide immigration practice. Mr. Kuck assists international immigrant investors, employers and employees with business and professional visas, labor certifications, immigrant visas, consular representation, and citizenship matters. Mr. Kuck also maintains an active Federal Court practice focusing on immigration issues. He has represented asylum seekers and others in more than 700 trials before the Immigration Courts.
NELDA SMITH
October 16, 2020 at 1:27 am
NO. NO. NO. WHERE DID THIS `PERSON` COME FROM? AMERICAN CITIZENS FIRST AND FOREMOST. GLOBALIST HAVE NO PLACE IN THE USA. A `DREAMER` BEAT MY COUSIN-JOSHUA WILKERSON AND THEN BURNED HIM TO DEATH IN TEXAS. WHY DID THIS ILLEGAL TRASH MURDER JOSHUA WILKERSON SO HEINOUSLY ? BECAUSE HE WANTED JOSHUA`S OLD RED TRUCK. Joshua Wilkerson, 18, was [murdered] in 2010 by Hermilo Moralez. Joshua Wilkerson’s body was found with his hands and feet tied. The partially burned body of Wilkerson was found in a wooded area, thick with trees, bushes and other shrubbery. Moralez, who was 19 at the time of the crime, led officers to Joshua Wilkerson’s body. These illegal families should never be separated…send them all back to their country of origin! Ask Joshua`s Angel Mom – Laura Wilkerson – about `Dreamers` ..or any of the over 200 angel Moms I have met. Charles Kuck, I have no respect for you…none at all.
Mike Bryan
October 16, 2020 at 10:43 am
So we are all for legal immigrants. As far as DACA goes the President was trying to get them to permanent legal status by trying to force the Congress to do their job and write legislation to fix our broken immigration system. Again and again, congress refuses to act leaving the DACA recipients in legal limbo. They really have no protection under the law, President Obama created the DACA program by Presidential fiat.
M.A. Johnson
October 16, 2020 at 12:06 pm
Mr. Kuck is duplicitous and self-serving. He and his firm of immigration lawyers profit from legalizing, or even just attempting to legalize, illegal aliens. All the “data” that Kuck claims about illegal aliens — whom he deceitfully calls “immigrants” — is from ONE source: The Center for American Progress. This is a Socialist organization. Just read some its articles and you, too, will see that it is, and that promoting America and our fundamental values is not part of this organization. The “data” is not reliable. Fir example, the thousands of Dreamers who purportedly work on the the front lines combatting COVID include clerks, housekeepers, laundry workers, food service workers and janitors in hospitals, clinics and medical offices and centers. Kuck makes unfounded assertions aimed at promoting the employment of illegal aliens and benefiting illegal aliens, essentially claiming we cannot get along without them. Let’s give it a try! I would bet we do just fine! The only Americans who benefit from what Kuck is peddling are greedy employers of cheap, illegal labor and immigration lawyers like Kuck. They throw Americans under the bus in order to line their own pockets.
It’s time to stand for America and put Americans first!
Chester Chaffin
October 16, 2020 at 9:18 pm
This man clearly makes his living representing illegal immigrants and their efforts to stay in the United States.
Justice
October 20, 2020 at 4:24 pm
Biggest bigot on record. He opposed a bill to remove discriminatory country of birth cap that would enable thousand of legal H1b holders who have been vetted over a decade to gain permanent residency. He defends only illegal immigrants and wouldn’t want country cap or numerical cap in that category.