Dreamers and DACA

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, abbreviated as DACA, allows some minors who were illegally brought to the United States to request consideration of deferred action from deportation and work permit eligibility. This means that children who arrived in the U.S. illegally may be able to avoid deportation for two years and work legally, renewing their status as DACA-participating individuals every two years.

When they were children, they could not tell their parents that they do not want to illegally cross into the U.S. and just wanted to stay at home. They were too young to realize that.

Several other requirements of DACA are that these DACA recipients, sometimes called “Dreamers,” must be under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012. Dreamers must have arrived in the U.S. before they were 16-years-old, have completed high school or some high school or military service, and have not been convicted of a felony or severe misdemeanor. Dreamers must be physically in the U.S. on June 15, 2012, while making a request of consideration with the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services).

In my opinion, having all of these requirements for eligibility to be put in consideration for a DACA recipient will be enough to give support to the people who actually deserve it.

Currently, President Trump is going back and forth with his policy for Dreamers. At times, he is sympathetic for them, and other times, he believes they should be deported.

While campaigning for the presidency, Trump said that Dreamers “have to go” on “Meet the Press.”

However, after he was sworn in, Trump was asked about what he would do to DACA at the White House in February 2016. He said that the decision would be very difficult to make. Trump called DACA recipients “absolutely incredible kids.”

President Trump, you are currently our president. You cannot have these drastic changes in mindset, for the U.S. So, please, sir, make up your mind. Do you want to help these “absolutely incredible kids,” or would you rather abandon the people who helped construct your buildings?

There are behind the scenes action going on to try to get sixty votes on either side of keeping DACA or repealing it from federal law. On the week of February 12, the Senate floor debates begin.

Since there is no evidence that Dreamers are more likely to commit crimes than the rest of the population of the U.S., I see no point in giving up on DACA.

In fact, DACA has helped DACA-eligible households. According to Observer, the US would lose a $460 billion workforce if DACA recipients were deported. In addition, it is not worth it to deport DACA recipients. It would cost nearly $60 billion to remove them. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center released a study that Social Security and Medicare would lose $39.3 billion from DACA’s termination.

If DACA is ended, it will end in both negative consequences for the US and the DACA recipients.