DACA & The Wall

Imagine that one day, planning to enroll in the local community college, or you're heading down to the DMV to take the test for your learner's permit  and you ask your parents if you can have your birth certificate and your social security card, since you know that they'll ask you for identification. Your parents look uncomfortably at each other before admitting that such documentation does not exist. They tell you that you were born in another country and that the three of you came to the United States when you were 6 months old. This is news to you; you don't speak the language of the country of your birth, you don't know anything about it. You feel American - you play baseball, root for all the local sports teams, you do all the things that real Americans do....except...technically...you're not an American, you're an undocumented immigrant, an "illegal". If you were in this situation would you even know it? Granted, some people who came here as children do know it, because their life has been one of hiding, of keeping their heads down, remaining as invisible as possible. But if you met one of these people, would you know it, unless they told you? The United States is the only country, the only culture that they have ever known, and on all points, other than the fact that their parents brought them here illegally, they are Americans.

The Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals was an executive action by President Obama begun in June 2012. Since it was not a legislative action, it was subject to rescission by future Presidents; President Trump rescinded it in 2017, asking Congress to take permanent action by March 2018. DACA stipulates that undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children, and meet certain other guidelines. On several occasions bills were brought before the House or Senate but failed to pass.

The arguments against permanently legalizing the status of the "Dreamers" (beneficiaries of DACA) usually boil down to some variation on "What part of illegal don't you understand?", while arguments for it focus on humanitarian concerns. My view is that these people did not make the decision to come here, their parents did and that they should no more be held responsible, or considered "illegal" than a child born here of undocumented parents. The overwhelming majority of these Dreamers hold jobs or attend college (one or the other is required) and have not have brushes with the law, some have served in our military. There is no reason to subject them to deportation other than an unthinking, black-and-white view of immigration.

When President Trump, who had previously expressed support for normalizing the status of Dreamers, rescinded the executive order that instituted DACA, it was widely believed that he was doing so as a bargaining chip to get funding for The Wall, you know, the one Mexico will be paying for. In budget meetings recently he seemed to be saying that he was in favor of legislation to enshrine DACA in law, but quickly backtracked; as usual it's difficult to say what his actual position is.

Now DACA has become entangled in the recent government shutdown. Senate Democrats initially withheld votes unless a DACA regularization was included in the continuing resolution, but agreed to vote for the resolution if McConnell agreed to bring DACA to a vote before the continuing resolution expired.

Whatever your position on immigration is, legal or illegal, whatever your position on terrorism, or immigrants stealing our jobs, the bad guys aren't these Dreamers,  and they should have the shadow of deportation to countries that they've never known removed from them.