Letter for All Dreamers: It’s Not about Who’s ‘Legal,’ but What’s Just
(After Letters For Black Lives)
Dear Uncles, Aunties, Cousins:
We need to talk.
In September, 2017, the Trump Administration announced their plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) established by President Obama, which, in exchange for their disclosure, promised undocumented immigrants brought by their parents to the US when they were 16 or younger (and likely call no other country but the US home) that they would not be deported and that they could obtain work permits. The Trump Administration has violated that promise and will end all protections on March 5, 2018 for young Dreamers who found the courage to come out of hiding for a chance to serve this country and be active participants and contributors in their communities. I worry for them and their families if Congress fails to do what’s just and pass the #DreamActNow.
I worry too that, even as we are offended by the Trump Administration’s repeated racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and attempts to enact racist, anti-immigrant policies, immigrant communities are breaking into camps of “us vs. them.” Instead of empathizing with and fighting for the place of all immigrants in this country, we’ve become defensive about our many years of planning, saving and waiting to immigrate to the US in the “right” or legal way. And because of this, we believe that we’re somehow more deserving than others of the “American Dream” — a good education, jobs, and benefits of a welfare state, such as health insurance and social security. I hear you assert, “We too have been victims of racism. We too have been made fun of or treated unfairly because of the color of our skin or our accents. But we’ve learned to adapt and rebuild our lives. So why can’t they do the same?”
Interestingly, your perspective changes when the undocumented is someone you know. The predicament is ubiquitous enough that there is an acronym for undocumented Filipinos— “TNT,” which is short for “Tago ng Tago” or “Hiding and hiding.” Of a particular family member who was “TNT,” you often lamented that if only “they” gave him the chance to get a job, he would have straightened himself out and progressed with his life, instead of spiraling into the alcoholism and depression that eventually killed him. Why does this relative of ours merit special consideration among all other undocumented immigrants? Is it because you’ve been convinced by portrayals in the media of illegal immigrants who are lazy, live off the welfare state, and commit crimes? (But of course, your brother, your uncle wasn’t any of those things.)
The question is, what’s to be gained by distinguishing yourself as different from other “undesirable” immigrants … especially in the eyes of Donald Trump and other racists and white supremacists who don’t want any of us in this country? Some of you are here because America offered you amnesty from political or religious persecution in your countries of origin. Who says you’re not the next target, after the recent termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for El Salvadorans and Haitians (and Hondurans likely later this year)? Others, like myself, are here because of policies promoting family reunification (in my case, the Nursing Relief Act signed by George H. W. Bush in 1989, which gave my mother permanent residency status and allowed her to petition my dad, sister and me after a four- year separation). Current pending legislation, such as the RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act, co-sponsored by Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arizona and David Perdue of Georgia), seeks to radically reduce overall immigration — in this case by half, in part by “reduc[ing] the number of family-sponsored immigrants.”
RAISE, among other restrictionist immigration reform proposals, argues for an “education/skills/merit” based system for determining who gets in or stays out of the country. If that were really the case, then aren’t the Dreamers precisely the “kind” of immigrants we want? According to the Center for American Progress’ nationwide survey of DACA recipients (the largest study to date on DACA recipients), 97% were enrolled in school or employed, and at least 72% of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies employed DACA recipients. A higher percentage of DACA recipients (5%) started their own businesses, compared to the general population (3.1%). Moreover, “research has shown that DACA beneficiaries will contribute $460.3 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product over the next decade — economic growth that would be lost were DACA to be eliminated.”
For all of these reasons, I support the Dreamers in their rallying cry for justice, “We are #HereToStay.”
I hope you can come to understand that we immigrants are in this together — documented, non-documented, legal or illegal. Especially under a racist administration that routinely targets not just immigrants but people of color and people with accents whose primary language may not be English, we cannot feel secure about our place in America until it is secure for everyone who seeks and keeps the American Dream alive.
An America that’s home to those who seek freedom and the opportunity to be their best enterprising selves. An America that welcomes and finds strength in a diversity of skills, talents, perspectives, ideas and solutions. An America that believes in working toward a more perfect union, rather than sowing divisions across status, race, color, religion, and gender. This is the American ideal that I immigrated for. This is the future that I want to work toward. I hope that this is the kind of America that you believe in too.
For a personal take on the high-stakes gamble of immigration, what we carry to this day about our immigrant pasts, and how we keep the dream alive for all seekers, read The Things We Carry: Immigrant Stories from the 1.5 Generation.
