In Defense of the DREAM Act

This piece was first published in the Deseret News on September 1, 2017.

Immigration laws and policies have often shifted throughout the history of this country, always revealing something about our priorities and collective psyche. Regardless of political affiliation, most U.S. citizens want some basic things from our current immigration policies: protection of national security interests; fairness in theory and application; a sense of order that creates predictability and consistency; policies that strengthen our national economic and social standing in the world; and (at least for most) a continuing commitment to compassion for those individuals and families “yearning to breathe free.”

Despite the near universal appeal of these guiding principles, current immigration enforcement policies are systematically having the opposite effects. Instead of focusing on removing dangerous criminals from our communities, the Trump administration has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to spend limited time and resources deporting people with no criminal records, often mothers and fathers of young families, who have consistently met their obligations to periodically check in with ICE. This does not make our country safer.

In fact, instead of actually working to protect us, the Trump administration seems to be more interested in stirring up fear of immigrants, as evidenced by its focus on walls, bans and databases of crimes committed by immigrants. Apparently they’d rather catalog those crimes than prevent them. Shouldn’t we all be asking why that is?

Not only are these new enforcement policies not keeping us safe, they are an affront to the other principles of fairness, order, practicality and compassion. Trump’s pardoning of former sheriff Joe Arpaio and the stranding of women and children at a San Antonio bus stop that had been closed down because of Hurricane Harvey were two clear indications this week that this administration places very little value on protecting civil rights — or human rights, for that matter.

All around us we are seeing the negative effects of rhetoric and policy that marginalizes immigrants — both the undocumented and those who have gone to great lengths to come here legally.

Farmers are losing their crops. Companies are concerned about whether they will be permitted to hire qualified employees to meet their needs. Refugees who have been waiting in camps, sometimes for decades, are forced to wait even longer.

Nowhere is the plainness of the anti-immigrant agenda more evident than in Trump’s wavering commitment to “dreamers.” Under the Obama administration, these 800,000 talented, law-abiding young people who were brought to this country as children were granted deferred action and given permission to work if they met certain qualifications. After previously describing himself as having “a big heart” when it comes to DACA recipients, Trump recently indicated that he will either terminate the program altogether or encourage the Department of Justice to challenge its legality.

By definition, these “dreamers” are educated, law-abiding, individually vetted, contributing members of society. The only explanation for wanting to deport them is simple animosity or misguided nationalism. We’re better than that. The DREAM Act would fix the problem and provide a clear, though not easy, path to permanent residency and eventual citizenship for so many of these young people who already love this country and are particularly qualified to make it even better.

Several versions of this bill have been proposed and received bipartisan support from 2001 until the creation of the DACA program in 2012. Now the DREAM Act has again been proposed by sponsors from both sides of the aisle. This is the time to push it across the finish line. Let us show that we want immigration policies that best serve our national interests rather than merely stoking the flames of fear and prejudice.

Diana Hardy is Immigration Committee Lead, Mormon Women for Ethical Government; Graduate of BYU Law School; practiced law in Utah before taking a break to focus on raising her young daughter in Portland, Oregon.