President Barack Obama's program to help Dreamers was called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and was supposed to be a temporary solution to a problem that would ultimately be resolved by Congress. This executive action provides a unique opportunity to willing non-national groups by granting work authorization and exemption from deportation to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors, meet certain educational requirements, and pose no threat to public safety. provided the opportunity to grow up freely in the country. They knew.
The idea was that lawmakers would turn this reprieve into a path for dreamers to become citizens. Instead, Congress did nothing. The roughly 500,000 current DACA recipients must renew their eligibility every two years, while the roughly 2.5 million Dreamers who were brought here too late to qualify for DACA barely live there. They are always at risk of being “sent back'' to a place they have no access to. There are 100,000. more Dreamers who were eligible for DACA but had their applications not processed due to coronavirus-era delays. Now they too are at risk of deportation.
Worse, even the current 500,000 DACA recipients could soon lose their status. A federal judge in Texas recently ruled that President Biden's reinstatement of DACA (the program was suspended during President Donald Trump's term) violates federal law. Recipients can maintain their status while litigation continues. But the case will be heard next by the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The case could then reach the Supreme Court, where a conservative majority could strip the program from immigrants who have relied on its protection to build careers and families. . At least one out of more than 300,000 U.S.-born children has DACA. You may suddenly have to leave everything behind.
The problem is not just that this situation is unjust. The problem is also that leaving the Dreamers alone is a colossal waste of talent, enterprise, and dedication to America. DACA costs almost nothing to the federal government. Its recipients don't receive the same benefits as the rest of the nation, from Pell Grants to attend college to Medicare to cover doctor costs. But they pay $495 to renew their status every two years and also pay taxes. Two dreamers have won Rhodes scholarships. Hundreds are doctors and medical students. Thousands of people work in health care in other capacities. During the pandemic, 340,000 people were considered essential workers. Many dreamers attend college, major in education, and pursue a teaching career.
This country needs more doctors. We need more teachers, especially bilingual teachers in English and Spanish. Many dreamers would like to play these roles, but they cannot. Currently, many DACA recipients already fill these slots, and forcing them out would harm employers, patients, students, and others.
So why is Congress forgetting about the dreamers this time? No matter how toxic the political debate becomes toward immigration, conservative constituencies should not be afraid to vote for positions supported by the majority of Americans. Congress has many options before it. Some version of the dream method would be the best one. Such a policy would give anyone who came here as a child the ability to apply for permanent legal status by meeting education, workforce, and military requirements. It will probably start with a green card.
But if this is unacceptable to lawmakers, there could be more modest alternatives, such as granting a path to citizenship to current DACA recipients or granting the same privilege to the 100,000 people whose applications have stalled. . At the very least, Congress should codify DACA so that current recipients can safely maintain their status, or remain “under DACA,” as advocates call it, in perpetuity. You could do that. Even the federal judge who invalidated DACA in September acknowledged that these young immigrants had become dependent on the program. The country also depends on them.