It seems that nowadays our elected officials are never without a way to disgrace themselves.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program – better known as DACA – gives them another chance to act with foresight, humanity, and decency, or with hate, prejudice, and stupidity.
The program was started 10 years ago by former President Barrack Obama. It gave many young undocumented immigrants who came to this country with their parents protection from deportations and the opportunity to build lives here as adults.
DACA participants have had a sword hanging over their heads since 2017, when then-president/racist/immigrant hater Donald Trump announced he would end the program. It’s future is now in litigation.
This week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled in the case challenging the program -- Texas v. United States. (You just knew Texas would be part of this)
In its decision, the court agreed with a lower court ruling that DACA suffers “fundamental substantive defects” that make it unlawful. Still, it sent the case back to district court for further consideration in light of pending regulations from the Biden administration set to go into effect Oct. 31. The changes would keep the program pretty much as it is, but it does have some changes meant to repair legal flaws identified by the courts.
If the district court doesn’t change its findings on DACA, the case is expected to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, the program continues to operate, but the government will not adjudicate new applications for enrollment.
In an analysis in the Washington Post, Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer writes that the program is “more at risk than ever,” and sees the latest court action as “a likely end to the program and delays a more definitive ruling.”
Kelley-Widmer is an associate clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, where she directs the 1L Immigration Law & Advocacy Clinic.
You can read her very thorough look at the issue here.
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This is where Congress needs to step in and finally approve the Dream Act, which has come before it many times and has never become law. The act would have provided a path to citizenship for these youths.
Kelley-Widmer said that 86 percent of Americans supported the Dream Act in 2017, but heated political debates about immigration have kept it from becoming law.
Of course they have.
Immigration is a hot-button issue in this country because of the efforts of the Right to demonized immigrants, inflame fear and hatred of them among the GOP base, and use them as a politicized weapon against the Democrats.
Some Republicans have gone as far as calling the granting of a pathway to citizenship for these folks as “amnesty.” That’s bullshit. They’ve committed no crime. They came here as children. Even if their parents came here illegally, we don’t punish innocent children for the sins of their parents.
I can understand expelling those who’ve committed criminal acts, but not the many who’ve become productive members of society. They’ve gone to school and have gotten jobs and are paying taxes. Maybe they joined the military. For many of them America is the only home they’ve ever known.
This is a nation built on immigrants. We needed them then, and we need them now. We have jobs we can’t fill. We need them to help replace the part of our workforce that has or will retire. We can’t afford to throw out smart, hardworking, responsible people who have made this country their home.
The cruelty of the Right has been on full display when it comes to immigrants. Using them as political props or talking points is disgraceful. Ginning up hate and fear in order to distract from their party’s lack of policies to solve our problems or vision to move this country forward is unconscionable and a go-to move for the GOP.
But forget politics for a minute. Welcoming these young people and giving them a chance to be U.S. citizens is simply the right thing to do. It’s what a great country would do. It’d be nice if some members of Congress would be guided by that fact instead of political calculations.
As Kelley-Widmer writes: “only Congress can offer stability to those who’ve grown up in the United States in legal limbo.”
The Dreamers -- all immigrants for that matter – are human beings.
How we treat them will determine if we are, too.
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Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody.