Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are urging congressional leaders to take quicker action on a legislative solution for young immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, commonly known as "Dreamers." Three former DHS secretaries sent a letter to congressional leaders and officials in both parties telling them that they need to take legislative action by the middle of January, The New York Times reported The letter was sent ahead of a Wednesday meeting on Capitol Hill, where DACA is expected to be a focus of discussions. ADVERTISEMENT “We write not only in strong support of this legislation, but to stress that it should be enacted speedily, in order to meet the significant administrative requirements of implementation, as well as the need to provide certainty for employers and these young people,” the secretaries said. “For these reasons, the realistic deadline for successfully establishing a Dreamers program in time to prevent large-scale loss of work authorization and deportation protection is only weeks away, in the middle of January."

The letter was signed by Jeh Johnson and Janet Napolitano, DHS secretaries under former President Obama, and Michael Chertoff, who served under former President George W. Bush.

They said the only "permanent way to prevent these Dreamers from losing work authorization and becoming subject to immediate deportation" is through legislation.

“Establishing a program to effectively adjudicate a new immigration application system must be done responsibly," they added.

Their letter said it would be necessary for a bill to be passed by Jan. 19 to allow for applications to be processed before the deadline.