by Elijah Lutz, Opinion Editor
Trump administration shouldn’t target DREAMers
by Elijah Lutz, Opinion Editor
It is an undeniable fact that immigration policy in the United States needs to be addressed. However, DREAMers should not be targeted in the efforts to fight illegal immigration, and the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans should stop their assault on DACA recipients immediately.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy was created by executive order of President Obama in 2012. It allows children brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents to defer their deportation while in school or serving in the military. DACA recipients must have a clean criminal record, must be enrolled in school, must have been brought to the U.S. before they were 16 years old and must apply for renewal every two years. The primary purpose is to allow them to receive their education in the states and ideally provide them a chance to apply for work visas and eventually citizenship. According to Pew Research, two-thirds of DACA recipients are under the age of 25. Many were brought not of their own volition, but by the efforts of others who hope for a better life for them.
Something that we must consider is this: most DACA recipients are fully functioning and contributing members of society. They work, they pay taxes, they go to school, they participate in their communities and they immerse themselves in the society they grew up in: the United States. The majority of DREAMers are our peers, fellow students and millennials with optimistic views of the future.
So why the attack on DACA and DREAMers? The Trump Administration is, admittedly, living up to its campaign promise to fight illegal immigration. Ending the DACA policy is something that goes hand in hand with the promise to “build the wall” and deport illegal immigrants from the U.S. After all, though they came here before they were 16, they did not come legally. So it is only natural that the president would seek to end the program in his efforts to root out illegal immigrants from the U.S.
Yes, I will freely admit, illegal immigration is an issue that must be addressed. The entire immigration policy of the United States should also be revisited. With DACA, however, the Administration’s attacks are misplaced. These young men and women call the United States their home, and for many it is the only home they know. They aren’t dealing drugs and they aren’t rapists – they are students. They want to have the best future they can get, they want opportunities and they want a better life for themselves.
Why can’t we as a nation realize this? Why is it that we seek to remove them from the home they know to a country that is alien to them? I believe that one should not be punished for the sins of their parents. Even still, wanting a better life for one’s family shouldn’t even be referred to as a sin in the first place. The U.S. is the “land of opportunity,” yet what we are doing by cutting DACA is removing any chance of opportunity from these young people’s lives. We are saying that the land of opportunity is closed.
As I mentioned before, illegal immigration is something that must be addressed. But going after young people who seek the chance to become a U.S. citizen whilst earning an education and contributing to society is something that we absolutely should not do. These are young Americans, whether or not they are citizens. It is time we treated them as such.
Photo via Jorge Barahona
