Immigration has been a cause close to my heart ever since I was old enough to realize what it truly meant for me. I grew up knowing that my great grandfather came to this country in the early 1900's to pick oranges. He didn't graduate high school and spent nearly his entire life trying to become a citizen, but with hard work and perseverance, he would later own multiple businesses and a restaurant. Even though Operation Wetback and various other US programs made it evident that America as a whole did not want him nor his workers here, he stayed. He stayed because he saw something in a country that would repeatedly do everything possible to show that he wasn't wanted. My great grandfather didn't stay to take advantage of people nor show the slightest bit of malevolence; he stayed because he had a dream to work hard, do good, and find some prosperity in what he thought was the best country in the world. I wouldn't be here without him and his dream.
Fast forward nearly a century after my great-grandfather came here, there are thousands of other people just like him holding on to a dream. But right now, this dream is being thrown away. As many of you probably know, the Trump administration is phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in less than six months. It is an unequivocal truth that this is a heartless, despicable, and erroneous decision that is only rooted in nefarious intentions. Even if you do not have a lax stance on immigration, this statement on the Trump administration's decision still holds true because not just anybody is allowed to become a DACA recipient. Being eligible for DACA is something most Americans can't do, and shows these young people as having some of the best character.
To be eligible for DACA, first and foremost, one has to be brought to the United States before they turned 16 years old. One also has to be under 31 as of June 15, 2012, continually resided in the US from June 15, 2007 up until now, have been physically present in the US on June 15, 2012 and at the time of requesting deferred action, had no lawful status as of June 15, 2012, are currently in school, have obtained a certificate of completion from high school or received a GED certificate or an honorable discharge from the US Coast Guard or Armed Forces, and "have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety."
If the education you received did not grant you critical reading skills, your vision is subpar, or if being literate is not a skill on your resume, you might not understand what kind of people are DACA recipients. These people are not the immigrants that "the Donald" claimed to be "bringing drugs and crime" and they most certainly are not "the worst" their respective countries have to offer. These young people are remarkable, hard working, and have the sole aspiration of contributing to the United States. Additionally, none of them are using DACA to put off applying for citizenship.
When you come to the US illegally, whether you receive DACA or not, you first have to apply for a green card to become a citizen. To get your green card you have to either wait until you're 21 to have a family member petition for you, have proof that you're a refugee or have asylum status, or get married to a current US citizen. However since DACA tends to involve younger people, (the program is called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, one had to be under 31 as of June 15, 2012, and to be eligible you also had to have come to the US before your 16th birthday) most are the first generation in their family to grow up in America. Therefore, they either have to wait until their siblings are 21 or get married; many of their viable options are simply not options to them.
Many people have the misconception that DACA recipients who have a job, and most of them do, also have the option to petition through their employer to receive a green card but this is extremely unlikely. To petition for a green card through an employer, one has to have an "extraordinary ability," be an "outstanding professor or researcher," a "multinational executive or manager," have an "advanced degree or exceptional ability," or be a "professional" or "skilled worker" of some sort. This can work for immigrants that are well into adulthood, but not DACA recipients because they are much younger. Being a barista at Starbucks or working the drive through at a fast food restaurant, which can be difficult at times, will not hold up in the Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers application. Any DACA high school or college kid's employer will not petition for them since they do not have the degree, extraordinary skill, or remarkable job that the petition requires. Most young adults, undocumented or not, are not multinational executives nor have a degree. It's simply ludicrous to expect them to. Petitioning is not an option for these kids, because it's nearly impossible for them to have what the application requires.
How are they helping this country? For starters they paid $298,995,000 from August 15, 2012 to March 31, 2014 alone simply to apply for DACA, even though 20,311 of the applicants in this period were denied. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, they contribute more than $11,740,000,000 in state and local taxes as of March 2017. A survey done by the Center for American Progress found that 5.5% of DACA recipients started a business, 12.1% bought a home, 14.4% are in the process of or have paid off their student loans, and 60.7% were able to pursue educational opportunities that they did not have before. These kids and young adults are doing amazing things, and the proof is evident.
DACA recipients that choose to pursue higher education, and the majority do, also do not receive federal financial aid. Across the nation, the amount of financial aid that they can receive greatly varies from state to state and between private and public universities. Several states bar undocumented students from being awarded any financial aid and even attending, many private colleges consider them to be international students (despite growing up in America) and force them to pay thousands more for international tuition. Despite these hurdles, the young people that receive DACA have worked hard to push through and go on to do great things.
Some argue that employed DACA recipients are taking jobs from American citizens, but there is not much proof to back this. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 6.2 million jobs left unfilled in America, despite over 700,000 DACA recipients being employed. These young people are not taking jobs from anyone, even if the labor market worked on a one to one basis, which it does not. Their employment is also not hurting our economy in any definitive manner. As of September 1, 2017 the US unemployment rate is 4.4% and any high school economics class, and William Dickens: Distinguished Professor of Economics and Social Policy and chair of the Department of Economics at Northeastern University, and visiting professor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, will tell you that full employment is perceived to be around 5%. While there are still unemployed people across America, they are not unemployed because of DACA. Essentially, the economy is doing fairly well at the moment.
Some people also do not think that the government will deport these kids and young people. Many say that it would be logistically impossible and that there's no way for the Trump administration to deport them. It's not impossible; this has happened before. In the 1930s and 1940s, close to 1 million Mexicans were deported with the United States' Mexican repatriation efforts, just because people thought that Mexicans were taking their jobs. There would also later be Operation Wetback, which would deport nearly 2.1 million Mexicans by force or threats of deportation. Both of these efforts happened well over half a century ago. Back then the government did not have massive databases of information, there was barely the interstate highway system, there was no internet, and despite these setbacks the government still deported all of these people. When DACA kids apply, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services knows everything about them. The USCIS has their address, knows where they go to school, their history, and can easily find these kids. Of course the intention for having all of this information is so the USCIS can carry out background checks (justifiably so), but this means that the Trump administration has easy access to this information and can abuse it and misuse it. There is no guarantee that the administration will, but they have every resource and piece of information they need to find these kids and deport them with very little stopping them.
I happen to have a friend who is undocumented and a DACA recipient. Like other DACA recipients, she was brought over here as a child and grew up in America. To paraphrase someone exponentially wiser than I am, she and every other dreamer are Americans in the truest of senses. They were raised in our communities, grew up with our friends and family, have always perceived themselves as Americans, and work hard to start their education and careers in the country they love and pledge their allegiance to. Each and everyone of them does so knowing that they have to work twice as hard throughout their life because that is just the life they live. All they ask is to be allowed some of the same opportunities that native born Americans have, since the only thing they've ever thought themselves as is American. And as of less than a month ago, they had a vague guarantee that they would have a few of these opportunities.
I do not intend on swaying anyone to want "open borders" or to permit "bad hombres" to enter our country. I just don't want anyone to have a misconception about what DACA does, and who it helps. DACA allows arguably some of the best kids in the nation, who were brought here by their parents, to prove themselves, and they ultimately do. They end up being our nurses, firefighters, veterans, PR workers, office managers, and a litany of other jobs that any American would have. They're also our friends, neighbors, and sometimes even our family. In having the privilege of knowing my undocumented friend, I've come to know her as the most hardworking person I know. I do not make this judgement lightly. Holding multiple jobs to pay for her own education, and going to a remarkable school full time, has not appeared to slow her down one bit. I look up to her as a great example in my life, and I would not have succeeded as much as I have without her help. I'm certain many of the other DACA recipients are just like her.
DACA kids are known as dreamers. They didn't come here on their own, but they were raised here with the dream that some day they'd have an opportunity to succeed. Empirical evidence shows that they are working hard towards their dreams, despite the numerous roadblocks set up in their way and an administration that has shown that it does not want them here. Most people say that someone who doesn't break the law, goes to college, and has a job is a good kid. Right now, there are 800,000 good kids at risk of losing everything they've ever worked for. If you want to see young people, children, working hard to better themselves and this country, you should be outraged. You should see the delusion, the moral lunacy that one needs to possess to decide to end DACA and whisk all these young people to places they've never known. Places with a language many of them don't speak, and a culture that they've never been a part of.
And what is to say of the families that these 800,000 remarkable kids are a part of? The average DACA recipient comes here when they are just 6 years old. Most kids are in kindergarten or barely in first grade at that point. Many of these kids' parents have children when they come here, but when you decide to deport the DACA recipients, their parents are also going to be deported. What is going to happen to the younger children in these families after their older siblings and parents are deported? The countries these people would be deported to also have immigration laws, so what are they supposed to do? As anybody who has attempted to do anything with any government entity knows, forms are not processed in a day. These are horrible situations that no one should have to deal with. The United States government should not be in the business of tearing families apart.
This is a terrible cycle with a myriad of negative repercussions. Some argue that we are a nation of laws, but we are also a nation of compassion. We are the nation who fought in World War II to save millions when we could have simply ignored it. We are the nation that under President Ronald Reagan, passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, ultimately allowing over 2.7 million illegal immigrants to apply for and receive legal status, because he knew it was the right thing to do. Right now there is no clear solution, but what we can do is set ourselves on the right path. The right path isn't a golden brick road, but it's a boulevard where dreams are planted and allowed to grow. For a group of kids who deserve to be here because they did not do anything wrong out of their own will. For the good kids who work tirelessly to go to school, contribute to our economy, are not dangerous, and make this nation a better country. These kids are on the pathway to more success and have deserved everything they've worked for, so we should allow them to keep working towards their dreams.
If you see the misconception in the decision on DACA, which I hope you do, do something. These young people standing up for themselves isn't enough to prevent the worst from happening. It is the responsibility of us, those who have the privileges they don't, to stand up for what's right. It is our duty to our fellow neighbors to protest, speak up, and say something, so that these great people don't go to waste.
Jon Stewart, renowned political pundit, comedian, and advocate, ended his time on the Daily Show with a simple statement and request. He said, "The best defense against bullshit is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something." I smell something right now, and I hope you do too.
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