The idea of immigrating to a foreign country for a better future has existed during the entire history of humankind. Many undocumented children are brought to the United States by their parents at a young age. Those children when they grow up struggle finding a potential job and the funds to go to college. In 2012, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was created by Barack Obama’s administration after many failed attempts in Congress to pass this law that protected undocumented children who were brought illegally as children. Those who are protected by DACA are called “Dreamers.” Just recently President Donald Trump ordered the termination of DACA and urged the Congress to find a replacement before he eliminates the protection on the Dreamers. (Shear at al.) Will hundreds of thousands of Dreamers lose their protection from deportation?
There are approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Although of those 11 million, about 2 million have lived in the country since they were children. Many have developed identities, aspirations, and values similar to those of American born children. Nonetheless, their lives are profoundly impacted by the constraints in their everyday life due to their undocumented status (Gonzales at al.) According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, there are about 800,000 Dreamers. Many believe that DACA recipients are all from Mexico, but that is a false statement. Most arrived from Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras; however, there are several Dreamers from Asia, mainly from South Korea and the Philippines (Gonzales, 2017). Additionally, to be eligible for DACA, the applicants had to have arrived before the age of 16, and under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012. Also, the applicants must have lived in the United States since June 15, 2007, currently in school or graduated, not convicted of a crime, and present physically in the U.S. as of June 15, 2012.
Tragically, on September 5, 2017, President Donald Trump revoked DACA and expects the Congress to find a replacement immediately. Dreamers are in fear because they don’t know what to expect now that DACA is gone. For more than five years, the undocumented children who came to the United States trusted the government with their data to obtain a job permit and protection from deportation. Now, they’re petrified that their private information might be used to track and deport them.
During the political campaign, Donald Trump strongly expressed his disapproval for illegal immigration, and he promised to reverse President Barack Obama’s “unconstitutional executive actions.” Trump said the decision about the fate of the Dreamers was tough, and he added, “we love the Dreamers.” We will not know the real fate of DACA recipients until six months from September, and many are anxiously waiting for the horrific future that beholds our country (Gonzales, 2017). Over the summer, ten state attorneys wrote to the President asking him to end DACA once and for all, and they gave him until September 5th to make a decision. These state attorneys were saying to terminate DACA or to get ready for a legal confrontation. This move from the ten attorneys was praised by those who believed that DACA was an executive outreach and those who wanted a stricter immigration control. The constitution decided that DACA was unconstitutional; therefore, they couldn’t defend it in court.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were still processing new applications for DACA received as of September 5. 2017 and stopped accepting them. Dreamers were eligible to renew their work permits before the deadline of October 5, 2017. The government wasn’t going to terminate any “Employment Authorization Documents” (Gonzales, 2017). President Trump said in a statement that he has spoken with the Department of Homeland Security that the DACA recipients aren’t priorities to be deported unless they’re criminals or part of a gang. However, there are DACA advocates who said there had been Dreamers who have been targeted by Immigration. On September 5 Donald Trump tweeted, “Congress now has six months to legalize DACA (something the Obama administration was unable to do). If they can’t, I will revisit the issue!”
DACA’s fate lies in the hands of Congress, which can choose to act to protect the program within the next six months or completely vaporize it.