Florida spiritual leaders send letter to Rubio, Scott urging immigration reform

TAMPA - Jon Aragón remembers when his uncles were deported to Colombia two years ago after having lived in the United States for more than two decades. It was an experience that marked him, but encouraged him to continue working for an immigration reform.

“The realities that immigrants live are very difficult,” said Aragón, 29.

Aragón is a pastor and director of the Living Faith Bible Fellowship, a church in Tampa that brings together Hispanic and Black parishioners. He is also one of more than 150 evangelical leaders and community advocates in Florida who signed and sent a letter to Republican senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. They urged them to address the situation of so-called Dreamers, immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children.

Nationwide 2,800 pastors, leaders and constituents in all 50 states sent the same letter that belongs to The Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition of organizations and community leaders.

The letter encourages senators “to lead in forging a bipartisan consensus” that can pass both chambers of Congress and be signed into law.

“Of particular urgency, immigrants who have already been residing lawfully in the country for many years - including Dreamers - should be offered an expedited process to apply for permanent legal status and eventual citizenship,” the letter states.

The letter also notes the need for broader immigration reform, including a restitution-based process that would both honor the law and keep families together.

“We must also finally resolve the situation of immigrants who are residing in the country unlawfully, rejecting the untenable approaches of mass deportation, blanket amnesty or the status quo,” states the letter, which was posted on the website of The Evangelical Immigration Table.

In response to questions by the Tampa Bay Times, Rubio did not directly address the letter’s content. However, his office sent some comments made by Rubio to Fox News’ Special Report. In those comments Rubio said: “Now is the wrong time to do it because we have an all-out border crisis today.”

Scott’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Times.

Dreamers are participants of The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program open to those who were brought to the United States before they were 16, have lived here at least five years and have a clean legal record. It provides recipients a Social Security number, enables them to work legally and invites them to renew their status every two years.

The program was established as an executive order by President Barack Obama in 2012 and never made it through Congress. Former President Donald Trump issued an order to eliminate it in 2017. A court ruled against him and new applications resumed in December. Now an estimated 616,000 people fall under its protection.

But just a month ago, a federal judge in Texas ruled against the program, prohibiting new applications but leaving it intact for existing recipients. The program remains in place under President Joe Biden, but only Congress can make it permanent.

About 24,000 of these dreamers are currently able to reside and work lawfully in Florida, said the Evangelical Immigration Table.

One of them is Italia Rico-Hurtado.

She was 8 when she came to the United States with her parents from Colombia. Rico-Hurtado, 29, is an anthropologist. She graduated with honors from private Rollins College in Winter Park. But every two years she has to pay $500 to renew her DACA and work permit, a process that can take months because of a large backlog of applications.

She said the pressure and the emotional challenge never ends.

“I’m part of the one third of Dreamers working on the frontline during this pandemic providing more vaccines for Central Florida while also trying to save up for the almost $500,” said Rico-Hurtado.

Dreamers pay some $8.8 billion in taxes annually and contribute to the economy of their communities - even more so when they own homes, according to a 40-state survey in 2019 by the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California.

Aragón said it is unfair that some politicians dismiss all these achievements.

“Caring about immigration, refugees or children being separated from their families is not a bipartisan issue,” Aragón said. “It’s an ethical and moral one.”