The Hill News

A version of this op-ed originally appeared in The Huffington Post.

I am participating in a press conference today with Presente.org and several Puerto Rican leaders that coincides with the president's trip to Puerto Rico on Tuesday. The press conference will include Esmeralda, who has lived in Puerto Rico since she was nine years old and who graduated with honors from high school, but who is also an undocumented immigrant who could be deported.

We are sending a clear message to President Obama that it is time to stop deporting these young people who were raised in the U.S. and are American in every way except for the paperw! ork. The people who would have been eligible for eventual legal status and citizenship through the DREAM Act had it been signed into law last year - including superstars like Esmeralda - are still being removed from the U.S., which is not in the national interest nor the explicitly stated goals of the president.

The president knows he has the power to stop the deportation of DREAMers, the question is whether he has the courage to do so. From a political standpoint, halting the deportation of DREAMers would do much more to show the Latino community the president is still on our side than just posing for pictures in San Juan.

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