DACA, the end to the dreamer’s era

“We’re going to work out something that’s going to make people happy and proud,” –President Donald Trump in a statement regarding DACA.

In spite of this optimistic promise, President Trump’s recent decision to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or (DACA) has produced extremely divided responses.

This Obama Era program was established in 2012 and since then 787,580 people have been able to reside in the country without fear of deportation, despite the fact that their parents brought them into the country illegally.

Alongside of the allowance for legal residency for young immigrants, According to unitedwedream.org, DACA allowed participants to have a driver’s license, obtain a job and receive healthcare benefits, enroll in college, receive a social security number, and apply for renewal in the program every two years.

Many people with more conservative views believe that Trump’s decision to end this program and “put Americans first,” was the right choice, and that these benefits given to non-American citizens were too generous and unearned for people who in their eyes, were taking away American jobs.

But the benefits resulting from membership in the DACA program were not available to just anyone.

In order to even qualify for the program, one had to be born on or after June 16, 1981, arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16, lived continuously in the US since 2007, be currently enrolled in school, graduated high school or be a GED recipient, be a honorably discharged military veteran, have a clean criminal record, and pass a background check.

And members of DACA were required to pay income taxes, disputing the view that they were reaping all the benefits of citizenship without paying any of their dues.

Trump’s decision to end the program and defer the finer details of its proposed termination to congress has left the young DACA recipients scrambling.

Many onlookers believe that this course of actions, and the uncertainty and fear that these kids now face is cruel. Just as teenagers were graduating high school, or applying or enrolled in college, the future that they worked so hard for has almost certainly disappeared.

The threat of deportation for kids as young as 15 is now a real possibility, and for some, they would be returning to a place they haven’t been to since their birth, and may not even speak the language or have family left residing there.

The decision to end DACA will have severe consequences for real people, most of them under the age of 18. According to the statistics from the Department of Homeland Security, at least 690,000 people will be displaced from their homes in the next 3 years, if DACA does cease to exist.

America is a place where people go in search of a better life. Children enrolled in DACA were attempting to work towards this goal, and contributing to our work force and percentage of educated youth in the process.

The children in DACA don’t deserve to be penalized for their parent’s choices, and certainly don’t deserve to be viewed as criminals.

The very foundation of the United States was encompassed around the idea that, any person, regardless of background or origin, should be able to succeed, provided that they work hard enough.

Congress will come to a finalized agreement on this topic in 6 months. I hope that a decision can be reached that truly would make the people of America proud, and does not divide and isolate the members of this country even further.

If interested in making voices heard in this issue, visit https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and contact local representatives.