Only Congress can provide relief for undocumented immigrants—it is time for them to act.
Attorney General Jeff Session’s announcement that the Trump administration is ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program came as no real surprise. This is what Donald Trump promised to do if elected president. But let’s be honest. The DACA program was always a stopgap measure instituted by President Obama because of Congress’s failure to fix our broken immigration system. For years, Congress batted around the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would have provided immigrants who came as children a path to citizenship.
When President Obama introduced the idea of DACA, I welcomed the action but noted that it was not a panacea, just another form of legal limbo. As I wrote in my book The Latino Threat: “As a temporary stopgap measure, this new policy does not provide permanent relief from deportation (and those who come forward will be giving the government information on their whereabouts).” I also noted that a new president, one hostile to immigration, could end DACA. This has now happened. Despite assurances that the information collected from DACA applicants will not be shared with ICE for deportation purposes, there is still the risk that such easily available information will be used against DACA recipients. Supposedly confidential data has been used in the past, such as when Japanese Americans were rounded up after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The real problem is Congress’s failure of leadership and the destructive partisanship that pervades our nation’s politics. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans are in favor of providing undocumented childhood arrivals a means to legalize their status. This is the only real way these young people can use their education to contribute to society, which benefits not only them but all of us.
If there is any silver lining in President Trump’s hardline position on DACA it is this: it sheds light on the hypocrisy in Washington. Many Republicans are criticizing the President for his “heartless” action and the misery he is causing these young people, but they had the chance to fix the problem in Congress. Congress could have provided comprehensive immigration reform, so that whole families could have lived and worked in this country with dignity as legal permanent residents and eventually as citizens, but they did not and have yet to do so. Only Congressional action can bring permanent relief for undocumented immigrants, young and old, and it is time for Congress to find a solution.
If there is any silver lining in President Trump’s hardline position on DACA it is this: it sheds light on the hypocrisy in Washington.
But a major obstacle to Congressional action on deportation relief for Dreamers, or comprehensive immigration reform, is that the debate has been framed by what I have called the Latino threat narrative. Donald Trump tapped into this narrative when he began his campaign on June 16, 2015 by calling Mexican immigrants drug dealers, criminals, and rapists. But Trump did not stop with Mexican immigrants, going on to target Americans with Mexican heritage. In a highly publicized attack on Judge Gonzalo Curiel that members of his own political party called “the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Donald Trump questioned the Judge’s ability to perform his job—overseeing a lawsuit involving Trump himself—because his parents had been born in Mexico. Trump’s attack on Curiel, an American citizen by birth in the United States, was an attack on all Americans of Mexican descent.
Donald Trump isn’t alone, of course. Earlier this year, Iowa congressman Steve King suggested that Latino children are a threat to the nation’s future: “Culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” This rhetoric drew a clear distinction between “us” (legitimate members of the nation) versus “them” (those who don’t belong) that casts Latinos as “other” who cannot be Americans. Such attitudes have fueled the pejorative “anchor baby” concept that has further pushed the idea that not only the Dreamers but their US-born siblings are not “real” citizens.
Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies. https://t.co/4nxLipafWO
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) March 12, 2017
It is time for Congress to look beyond political rhetoric and rancorous partisanship to finally put an end to the legal limbo of childhood arrivals. The solution should provide a path to citizenship immediately for Dreamers, following the guidelines suggested for DACA and the DREAM Act. Both take into consideration length of time in the United States, educational experiences, and participation in the armed services, as well as non-criminal records. Such criteria ensure that those who qualify are already socially engaged and good citizens in every way, save one: their formal legal status.
In working toward a solution, Congress must treat undocumented youth (and their families) as human beings who have something to offer this country, not as bargaining chips in a political tug-of-war over border security and criminal enforcement. Their future as full-fledged members of society should not be subject to funding for a border wall or increased funding for the US Border Patrol.
In working toward a solution, Congress must treat undocumented youth (and their families) as human beings.
When considering immigration relief for Dreamers and more substantial immigration reforms, Congress should recognize that the US demand for labor fuels undocumented immigration. Undocumented immigrants actually come to help us keep our economy strong by alleviating the strain caused by relatively low fertility and an aging population (challenges faced by practically all industrialized nations). If we can plan a trip to Mars, why is it difficult to adjust legal immigration so that during periods of economic growth we expand the number of legal immigrants and workers rather than forcing employers to seek undocumented workers? That lack of political will and creativity is a major source of our immigration problems.
While President Trump’s ending of DACA is discouraging, unsettling, and sure to raise the stress level of my students, friends, and immigrants throughout the country, it is also a call to action. Let’s push our elected officials to fix the problem once and for all.
I appreciate your views on DACA. While I don't "love" the idea of DACA, it's the best we have right now. I am hopeful that congress can come up with a better solution for immigration reform and paving paths to citizenship for DACA recipients.
http://www.christianaalaniz.net/world-views
Posted by: Christian Alaniz | September 20, 2017 at 03:21 PM