Xavier Siri
Professor Ady
6/12/17
The Dreamers are Americans too
September 5, 2017 —a scary day for the immigrants of America. A day that made them afraid to even step out of their house. On this day, President Donald Trump announced the end of a program created by the Obama administration; a program that allowed 800,000 people to stay in this country to pursue their dream jobs and accomplish their goals. Although the fear of deportation is nothing new for many undocumented immigrants, the Obama administration worked to alleviate this fear. This effort transformed into the implementation of a program known as Deferred Action for Children Arrivals, or DACA. This program has helped young immigrants in America, including those whose country is too dangerous for them to live or those who do not have the access to the same career and educational resources as the United States. America is a country built on a solid foundation of immigration, a fact that President Trump is ignoring by removing this program. The United States government must reinstate DACA to free these young people from their fears and assist the United States economy.
DACA is a program created by former president Barack Obama which permitted select young people (referred to as the Dreamers) to obtain a working permit and an education in the United States. To qualify for this program, you must have been born in the United States or arrived in this country before the age of 16. This ensured that young people, regardless of their parents’ immigration journey, would have the safety and security of staying in this country. As long as they did not violate any major laws, these Dreamers were given a brighter future than they would have most likely had in their home country. The program also adhered to the basic human rights principle of not punishing a child for their parents’ wrongdoing. If a mother or father commits a crime, their child is not punished — why should immigration related offenses be any different?
There are students who attend Catholic school, strongly believe in God, and pray day after day that all this madness will go away, but yet this nonsense continues and these students live in the constant fear of deportation. They isolate themselves, living in the shadows because that is the only way to get by. Living in constant fear of waking up and losing everything they have worked so hard for must be a miserable fate. These Dreamers are part of our community and you see these people on a day to day basis. 900 dreamers are even serving in the army — Dreamers are our neighbors, teachers, fire fighters… etc. But most importantly they are human beings who have no fault for coming into this country. DACA’s deadline is on March 5th; after that, no more applications or work permit renewals will be accepted. The clock is ticking for these hardworking Dreamers(Korte).
To say that these people are stealing jobs from native-born Americans is simply not the truth as there is no evidence that supports this claim. Though it might seem logical that in the long term the more immigrants, the less jobs for native-born Americans, that is not the case because DACA recipients are actually boosting our economy. Not only that, it is just disrespectful and ignorant to throw 800,000 people under the bus when this is not true. 800,000 people is a small fraction of the illegal immigration in this country.
The dreamers pay taxes as well. According to the institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, DACA contributes to $2 billion a year in taxes(Totiyapungprasert). The dreamers are big part of our economy. According to Marc H. Morial, CEO of the National Urban League: “In addition to the human catastrophe deportation of Dreamers represents, the U.S. would lose about $460 billion in GDP over the next 10 years and about 700,000 people could lose their jobs.” GDP is the Gross Domestic Product which is the best way to measure a country’s economy. DACA students do not receive Federal or State Aid to pay for school, are not eligible for Obamacare or Medicaid, as well as receive less money than native-born Americans in their retirement funds. These people have to pay the government and despite them paying taxes like a citizen of the United States who is protected by this country and get benefits from our government; the Dreamers don’t get the benefits that they’re paying for. Most of these DACA recipients work highly skilled jobs despite the common misconception and stereotype that DACA recipients are involved in jobs that require low skill.
Keeping DACA is simply the moral thing to do. By ending DACA, President Trump took away the security of thousands of people who for years relied on the law of this country to work and get by every day. The ending of DACA is breaking a promise that the United States made to these people. On January 15th of 2012, President Obama promised safety and guaranteed these people an education and jobs. Most of these people consider America their home and that is everything they know. Some of the Dreamers don’t even speak the language from their native country. There are no benefits that come with ending DACA.
President Trump’s reasoning on ending DACA are his beliefs that these “illegal immigrants” who have been living here for the majority of their lives are involved in gangs and stealing jobs from native-born Americans. Donald Trump and his administration claim that eliminating the money that goes into DACA and shifting the funds and attention to border security is the right move, but he is wrong. Though amnesty encourages illegal immigration and DACA gave amnesty to thousands of people, there are currently 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. 66% or about two thirds of the adult population of immigrants in 2015 have been in America for at least a decade.
Most of the undocumented immigrants in the United States are not Mexicans according the Center’s preliminary estimate claiming that in recent years the number of Mexican illegal immigration has been declining. From 2009 to 2015 the number of illegal immigrants from nations like Asia and Central America has grown dramatically. In states like California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois, where the number of Mexican immigrants was significant, there has been a large decrease since 2009. But it seems like all these statements are irrelevant to our President who continues to be blind about this issue. DACA is not the problem rather the problem is that our President is focused on implementing border security.
Illegal immigration is an issue, but there are better ways to handle this issue. For example, instead of focusing on border security which most immigrants don’t even enter through the border anymore most of the immigrants arriving America come via airplanes and stay in this country after their visa expires. Building a bigger “wall” and adding more security to our borders is not going to stop illegal immigration. There are programs like E-verify which is a program where workers voluntarily confirm that they are working in this country legally. Making this mandatory makes the chances of illegal immigrants working in this country slim to none. Instead of ending the program that protected and helped young people follow their dreams and work to better themselves and their families, Congress and the Trump Administration should work to better the program and work on the issues the program has. For example the issue of giving these dreamers a citizenship or green card; Because if given the full citizenship or green card the parents who broke the law to get into this country will be eligible for a citizenship. As well as if given the citizenship what restrictions should be incorporated in order to prevent the parents of these children from becoming citizens.
Currently, Congress is in a state of a split decision, meaning they can’t decide whether to reinstate DACA or end the program for good, as well as many Republicans taking on the side of reinstating DACA or pass a substitute for DACA which will provide the Dreamers with similar qualities as the previous program but would give these people protection from getting deported as well as giving them the right to work in this country legally.
This decision has not only negatively affected immigrants, it has affected natural-born Americans. As soon as Donald Trump made his decision, hundreds of students rioted the Capitol in Washington, D.C. The students took a march down to the capitol holding big orange signs and wearing orange shirts that had “Clean Dream Act” on them that meant that they wanted a law passed without any “tough anti-immigration measures” like deportation or inability to work or study. That day alone, 15 adults were arrested due to insubordination(Stein). The rally didn’t stop however and these students were determined to convey their message one way or another.
DACA does not accept just any immigrant. In order to apply for DACA these people had to give their information to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This department gave the recipients assurance that this information would not be shared with ICE or CBE which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Enforcement. If this information gets to any of those to agencies the recipients would be deported. The only way ICE or CBE could get this information is if the person has committed a crime. Now that DACA is over, who knows what the government is going to do with that information. If this information were to get released it would not only be immoral, but devastating for thousands of people. Adding to the fear that these young people face, worrying about every single step they take. This is one of many reasons why Dreamers live in constant fear(Korkzan). Knowing you can be gone any day now and being treated like puppets by the government is a scary feeling that thousands of people face daily. If the United States reinstates DACA, they will be taking the first step in “Making America Great Again” for thousands of young immigrants.
Works Cited
Capps, Randy, Michael Fix, and Jie Zong, "The Education and Work Profiles of the DACA Population," Migration Policy Institute, August 2017https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/education-and-work-profiles-daca-population
Epstein, Gene. "DACA Math: Immigrants Don't Steal Jobs." Barron's, vol. 97, no. 37, 2017, pp. 47, ABI/INFORM Collection; Accounting, Tax & Banking Collection, http://lib.assumption.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1937605312?accountid=36120.
“Fact Check: Are DACA Recipients Stealing Jobs Away from Other Americans?” Minnesota Public Radio News, 6 Sept. 2017, www.mprnews.org/story/2017/09/06/daca-fact-check-employment.
Korkzan, Shireen. "Despite Catholic Campus Support, DACA Students Fear Deportation." National Catholic Reporter, vol. 53, no. 12, 24 Mar. 2017, pp. 1-5. EBSCOhost, lib.assumption.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=122036904&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Korte, Gregory, et al. “Trump Administration Struggles with Fate of 900 DREAMers Serving in the Military.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 7 Sept. 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/07/trump-administration-struggles-fate-900-dreamers-serving-military/640637001/
Morial, Marc H. “REINSTATE DACA AND PROTECT DREAMERS.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Sept. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reinstate-daca-and-protect-dreamers_us_59bc2474e4b02c642e4a164a.
Stein, Perry. "DACA recipients storm the US Capitol." Washington Post, 9 Nov. 2017. World History in Context, Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.
Stotts, Ryan. “Pro/Con: DACA.” PostBulletin.com, PostBulletin, 19 Sept. 2017, www.postbulletin.com/opinion/columnists/pro-con-daca/article_e9f09dd9-3c97-5804-b218-2a6c60b469b7.html.
Totiyapungprasert, Priscilla. “How Much Do Dreamers Pay In Taxes? DACA Recipients Contribute Just Like Everyone Else.” Bustle, Bustle, 11 Sept. 2017, www.bustle.com/p/how-much-do-dreamers-pay-in-taxes-daca-recipients-contribute-just-like-everyone-else-81419.
VERBRUGGEN, ROBERT. "A DACA Deal." National Review, vol. 69, no. 18, 02 Oct. 2017, p. 26. EBSCOhost, lib.assumption.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ulh&AN=125136620&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Zamudio-Suaréz, Fernanda. "With DACA in Doubt, This Counselor to Latino Students Is Busier Than Ever." Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 64, no. 4, 22 Sept. 2017, p. 12. EBSCOhost, lib.assumption.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=125887429&site=ehost-live&scope=site.