Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Dreamers are staging a “Sing-In” at Senator Chuck Schumer’s Washington D.C. office today, Thursday December 7th. We are singing DREAM Act Carols to create urgency for a clean DREAM Act by Christmas.

For a clean DREAM Act by the end of this year, immigrants will be putting their bodies on the line to urge Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to fight hard for our youth, children and what is right.

In this uncertain and challenging time, we need legislators who will fight and take risks for everyday people. We are not seeing widespread urgency from our Members of Congress regarding the critical need to pass the DREAM Act and renew the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). To date, already more than 10,000 immigrant youth have lost their DACA status and are at risk of deportation, and every day 122 more youth lose their protections. In addition to our undocumented young people, nearly 4 million children are at risk for losing their health insurance because Congress has not yet renewed SCHIP.

At the same time we appreciate the 34 Republican Congressmembers who signed on to Congressman Scott Taylor’s letter to urge Speaker Paul Ryan for a solution for DACA youth before the end of year. We hope there will continue to be more courageous Republican Congressmembers who become co-sponsors of the DREAM Act and that the House Speaker will bring the DREAM Act to the floor for a vote. We are also encouraged by Democrats who have publicly demanded attaching the DREAM Act to a must-pass bill this year. We hope that more members from both sides of the aisle will take this stance publicly.

Today, we are urging Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, as he prepares for his meeting with the White House, to be our fighter for our youth, children and what is right.

We urge Senator Schumer to say yes to attaching the DREAM Act and SCHIP to any must pass bill such as the important government spending bill. If the this is not done, our government will be abandoning our young people, and in effect have voted to deport them.

We ask Senator Schumer to inform the community immediately regarding the agreement made at the meeting with the Trump administration today.

We demand an in-person meeting with Senator Schumer the week of 12/11 to discuss next steps to winning a clean DREAM Act before the end of this year.

Until we get commitment from Senator Schumer regarding the above 3 requests, we will stay in his office and refuse to go home.