The captains of Corporate America are accelerating a campaign to persuade Washington to give Dreamers a path to citizenship.
The Coalition for the American Dream — comprised of more than 100 organizations, including Amazon, Apple, General Motors and Target — wrote a letter to Senate leadership Wednesday calling on lawmakers to provide certainty to Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
The letter, first reported by CNBC, expressed “strong support” for the Dream Act of 2021. That's a recently reintroduced, bipartisan bill that would allow Dreamers to apply for lawful permanent resident status and eventually citizenship.
The legislation “would provide a permanent legislative solution for these young people and end the limbo they have been in for years,” the coalition said.
The letter was signed by leading business groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers. A wide range of companies are also backing the effort, including Best Buy, Microsoft, Google, Uber and Starbucks.
Failure to act could cost the US economy $350 billion in GDP and $90 billion in federal tax revenue, the group argued.
“Continued delay or inaction will cause significant negative economic and social impact on businesses and hundreds of thousands of deserving young people across the country,” the letter said.
The campaign includes a full-page ad in the New York Times, as well as virtual meetings between Senate offices and Dreamers who work at IBM, Intel, Microsoft and other companies.