David Zalesne, president of Owen Steel Company, Inc., Columbia, S.C. (an AISC member and certified fabricator) and vice chair of AISC, is prominently featured in a New York Times article on American business leaders urging President Trump to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects children of undocumented immigrants -- known as “Dreamers” -- from deportation.
Zalense said that while some of the Trump administration’s economic policies could be good for bolstering American manufacturing -- and domestic steel production in particular, a push to end a program that shields the children of undocumented immigrants from deportation, a move the administration has been considering, seems “self-defeating.”
The article states that while Trump may decide to give Congress time to come up with a permanent resolution, immigration advocates and economists warned that the possible demise of DACA could lead to the deportation of as many as 800,000 people, many of whom are working legally in industries across the United States.
“Why would you take people out of the workforce, who are part of the system and paying taxes?” asked Zalesne.
Last week and over the weekend, more than 400 American business leaders, including Zalesne, signed a letter to Trump and congressional leaders, titled, “Open Letter from Leaders of American Industry,” advising that the Dreamers are vital to the U.S. economy.
Read the article here.