A Great Dream, A Great Dreamer, and a Terrible Mistake
By Stevan Kukic
On Sunday I had a profound experience. I was given the opportunity to interview a Longmont DREAMer. I will call her Anita, but that is not her real name.
Anita is 18 years old. Her parents brought her to this country when she was only 3. She graduated from High School in 2017. She is in Junior College studying Human Resources. Anita wants to help other people who are facing the challenges she is confronting.
Anita is a DACA recipient. Her authorization lapses in 2019. She has a brother, Dimas, who should be but is not a DACA recipient. He is a High School Senior. He is a good student and is a member of the soccer and track teams. And, he is in a horrific state of ambiguity about his future. Anita and Dimas have two younger siblings who are citizens. If Dimas and Anita are deported, their family will be shattered. If their parents are taken too, what will happen to the young children?
Anita was eager, compelled, even, to say that DREAMers are human beings like everyone else. She stressed that DREAMers are not getting anything for free.
Anita is working hard to contribute. She understands that hard work makes success easier. For her, it is the only path. She made it clear that she and other DREAMers need and want to be protected.
Anita told me that citizenship would make her happy because with it she could visit her grandparents and find out so much more about her origins and family. But this country is her home.
Anita is an activist. She is a part of Northern Colorado DREAMers United (on Facebook), @dreamersunited14 (on Twitter). She attended a conference for DACA recipients yesterday to learn better ways to advocate so that this very solvable dilemma is solved.
Anita is motivated and optimistic. She is the kind of competent young adult our country needs to be greater than it has ever been. How can our Congress hesitate even for a second to help young people like Anita??
As a country, we have known for decades about this issue that affects fine people like Anita, their families, and the economy. In all that time, we have failed to resolve it.
Hundreds of thousands of children have been brought to the U.S. by their undocumented immigrant parents. They know this country as home. Most of these children are in school. Many have finished school and are contributing to our country with their talent and perseverance. Most are committed to the U.S. and want to stay.
California Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard started working on this issue in 1999. The Senate’s sponsor, Senator Dick Durbin, named the act the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or the DREAM Act. Thus, these young people became known as the DREAMers.
Our political system has proven itself unworthy of our DREAMers. Please remember, these children came to this country because they were brought here, not because they chose to come here. In 2006 and 2007, the DREAM Act text was inserted into a bipartisan immigration policy overhaul. That overhaul failed. In 2010, a version of the bill passed the House, only to die in the Senate.
In 2012, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus pleaded with President Obama to do something. He signed an Executive Order called DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. DACA does not cover all Dreamers but it has protected almost 800,000 people from deportation. In 2017, The Migration Policy Institute estimated that there are 1.9 million potential participants in DACA.
In September of 2017, President Trump and Jeff Sessions ended the DACA program. Given the two-year lifespan on DACA authorizations, the deportation cliff will occur between now and March 5, 2020. There are approximately 154,000 individuals with DACA expiration dates between now and March 5, 2018. By 2020, that number will rise to almost 800,000. Anita’s deadline comes in 2019.
This is morally outrageous. How would you like to be one of these people? Who are they? They are Anita and Dimas (also not his name). They are Las Estrellas, who carried their signs under Cory Gardner’s nose at the Yuma County Fair. (We will always be convinced that they are the ones who changed his mind about DACA.)
We must live up to our nation’s vaunted principles for these wonderful contributors to our society.
On August 29, 2017, FWD.us and the Center for American Progress introduced a report on DACA’s impact on jobs, DREAMers, and U.S. economy. The report highlights the dramatic consequences of repealing DACA. Highlights:
· An average of 30,000 DACA recipients will lose their jobs each month.
· For each business day, an average of more than 1,400 DACA individuals can be fired from their jobs.
· During the 3rd quarter of 2018, a DACA recipient can be fired every 13 seconds.
· If kept in place, the nearly 700,000 DACA recipients who have jobs have the potential to generate more than $460 million in gross domestic product.
Because we are at full employment, nobody is waiting for the DREAMers’ jobs. That half billion dollars in productivity will be lost to our economy. More, the benefit of their education, talents, competence, and training will be lost to our nation.
The hopes and plans of the DREAMers could be dashed at any time based on decisions being made by lawmakers who have proven their disdain for the DREAMers’ plight. It is cruel and heartless to use these DREAMers as political leverage, but that is exactly what many Republicans in Congress are doing.
In a response to our letter urging Rep. Buck to find a solution for the DREAMers, he said on January 23, 2018: “DACA is a federal program that shields from deportation and provides work permits to individuals who illegally entered the United States as minors.” You can see Buck’s cold-hearted letter in its entirety on our website.
But know this. Anita is not illegal. She is brave, and smart, and hard-working, and loving. None of those things are illegal. They are admirable. They are valuable. Why would we throw those things away? Why would we throw these children away?
In the view of WTF Colorado, Rep. Buck has once again twisted reality to match his bias. How can he say that these children illegally entered the U.S. when their parents brought them here? A majority of his own party disagrees with him.
We have already so damaged our nation that it is no more the desirable destination for migrant people that it once was. Let us not compound our error by throwing away the great asset that DREAMers comprise. Is Buck man enough to admit his error and open his heart to these blameless young? We can only hope. Or DREAM.
References
http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4170929
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/us/politics/dream-act-daca-trump-congress-dreamers.html
