About 200 Democratic representatives have signed onto a bill granting pathways for citizenship to immigrants who came to the country as children.

Now, the American Dream and Promise Act from Reps. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston) has gained the support of a Republican representative. Another Central Valley representative agrees, saying reform for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is needed.

Related Story: Will Costa’s New Bill Become the Long-Awaited Fix for DACA?

Florida Representative Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Miami) signed onto the bill as a co-sponsor, according to Costa’s office.

And while not outright backing the bill, Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) spoke out about the need for DACA reform in a statement to GV Wire.

“Immigration reform is one of my top priorities in Congress, and that includes providing relief for DACA recipients,” Valadao said. “The Central Valley is home to thousands of DACA recipients who go to work, attend school, pay taxes, and are actively involved in our communities. With House Republicans in the majority, I look forward to working with my colleagues to reform our broken immigration system as well as providing much-needed security at our borders.”

Border Security Could Get Immigration Reform Passed: Costa

The American Dream and Promise Act establishes permanent residency for the roughly 500,000 DACA recipients while they can pursue citizenship. Recipients have been awaiting Congressional action for more than a decade after several failed attempts to pass legislation. Follow-up actions for President Barack Obama’s 2012 program failed even when Democrats controlled Congress.

The 2019 DREAM Act did not make it through the U.S. Senate while the 2023 American Dream and Promise Act failed to pass out of committee.

But given President Donald Trump’s verbal support for the DREAM Act, Costa says he believes it can be passed.

“The president has said that he thinks that we ought to do something for DREAMers, I think those DACA children deserve to be included as well, and that’s why we’ve introduced the legislation,” Costa said. “I think this has the potential with President Trump as we look at border security. We all agree we need to improve our border security to fix elements what is a broken immigration system today in America.”

“DREAMers” refers to the roughly 2.3 million people who came to the U.S. as children. Many of those signed up for the DACA program.

Costa wants to extend protections for both DREAMers and DACA. He says that can be done through the Farmworker Modernization Act, which helps secure farm labor jobs. Despite having trouble in the U.S. Senate, it has gotten bipartisan support in previous years. Adding in elements of border security could help secure the bipartisan support needed to get some immigration reform passed.

“I’ve never seen a level of fear as I’ve witnessed here in the last month or so,” Costa said. “It’s appropriate that we go after the bad people, the traffickers, human trafficking and drug trafficking, the cartels, those criminals and deport them, no one disagrees with that.

“But there’s a lot of other folks here, and I think they’re the majority who, for all practical purposes, are working hard, paying taxes, contributing to our community, who deserve an opportunity to legally call America their home.”