Living or Leaving America?

There is no way to avoid deportation if immigrants’ children are banned from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

By: Claire 11.1

A drawing of a DACA protest in America

DREAMers (the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors), the children under DACA, is a legislative program that aims to protect immigrant children from deportation in the United States of America. It was an executive order from President Obama on June 15, 2012, that grants temporary rights to work or live legally without getting deported for illegal migrant young people who followed their parents to the United States. Currently, around 700,000 illegal immigrant youths are receiving the benefit of DACA. It lasts for two years at one time and can receive it again if they reapply for it. However, it does not allow them to become a citizen of the USA.

There are thousands and millions of children who are brought to the U.S. illegally. However, not every one of them is allowed to receive DACA and enjoy the benefits. There are several criteria that individuals must meet. This includes those who: moved to the United States before the age of sixteen, currently in school, have a high school diploma, have no criminal record, and have continuously resided in the U.S.

One of the children who came to the U.S. illegally said they want to receive the benefits of the DACA system “So that we can go on with our lives, without fearing to get deported the next day, or you know, never seeing my mom again, or never seeing my brother again.” Nevertheless, they failed to get the approval of it. This is not the only case; many of the DREAMers are going through this difficult situation and are living day by day worrying about when they will be deported.

President Trump tried to abolish DACA from 2017 in the name of depriving Americans’ jobs, increasing crime, and an unfair system for legal immigrants. Also, ten states forced the U.S. administration to abolish DACA and if not, they will sue them.

President Trump posted his Twitter saying, “Many of them in DACA are not young and are very different from ‘angels’. Some of them are very rough and cold-hearted criminals.” As such, he kept showing a zero-tolerance attitude to those illegal immigrants and asked Congress to change the law for DACA after he decided to abolish it.

However, the perspective for DACA is different from President Biden. President Biden is trying to implement a new DACA policy to correct it because currently, only DACA renewal is possible for DREAMers, and new applications are blocked. This means that once the two years of the DACA system is over, Dreamers will be deported from the U.S. President Biden supports the DREAMers and further claims that there should be a pathway for them to get citizenship through DACA.

For years, DACA has contributed positively to DREAMers’ lives. DACA allowed them to have better-paying jobs, to get credit cards, to get health insurance, to open bank accounts, to buy homes, or to start businesses. Losing DACA means that they cannot enjoy these benefits that can be considered basic rights. Depending on where they live, DREAMers undergoing DACA can completely lose or only partially access the provisions. Abolishing DACA is destroying countless DREAMers’ lives.