President's statement addresses the implementation and impact of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and provides recommendations for how Congress should move forward. There is no doubt that the DACA benefits have been a major blessing for the recipients and their families. The educational institutions they attended and their employers also benefited. But there also have been some adverse side effects for the American economy, for local communities, and for our immigration system. The DACA program not only was an egregious abuse of executive authority, it was carelessly implemented. It has displaced legal U.S. workers from employment opportunities, added to the cost of public welfare and assistance programs, provided deportation protection to criminals, diverted resources away from processing benefits for legal immigrants, invited fraudulent applications, and helped inspire a surge of new illegal immigration. Members of Congress again are being confronted by passionate advocates for an amnesty. You must also remember that constant increases in immigration have consequences for Americans, and that continued tolerance of illegal immigration damages the integrity of our legal immigration system and erodes public support. For these reasons, an amnesty is appropriate only if it is limited to the approximately 700,000 people who now have DACA benefits, and only if it is enacted along with other provisions to mitigate the unavoidable fiscal costs, increases in chain migration, and encouragement to illegal immigration that will ensue.
Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein, thank you for the invitation to appear at this important hearing. My statement addresses the implementation and impact of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and provides recommendations for how Congress should move forward. There is no doubt that the DACA benefits have been a major blessing for the recipients and their families. The educational institutions they attended and their employers also benefited. But there also have been some adverse side effects for the American economy, for local communities, and for our immigration system. The DACA program not only was an egregious abuse of executive authority, it was carelessly implemented. It has displaced legal U.S. workers from employment opportunities, added to the cost of public welfare and assistance programs, provided deportation protection to criminals, diverted resources away from processing benefits for legal immigrants, invited fraudulent applications, and helped inspire a surge of new illegal immigration. Members of Congress again are being confronted by passionate advocates for an amnesty. You must also remember that constant increases in immigration have consequences for Americans, and that continued tolerance of illegal immigration damages the integrity of our legal immigration system and erodes public support. For these reasons, an amnesty is appropriate only if it is limited to the approximately 700,000 people who now have DACA benefits, and only if it is enacted along with other provisions to mitigate the unavoidable fiscal costs, increases in chain migration, and encouragement to illegal immigration that