January’s government shutdown temporarily gave some Dreamers hope that Senate Democrats were going to stand firm on Dreamers’ behalf.
But with the Dems’ quick cave and President Donald Trump’s subsequent immigration proposal (dismissed by the American Civil Liberties Union as a plan that would only benefit white supremacists), Dreamers still have plenty to worry about.
Trump’s proposed plan, released Jan. 25, would allow around 1.8 million DACA recipients and Dreamers—undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children—an opportunity for citizenship. But it also includes a demand for $25 billion to fund construction of the border wall and increased security measures, as well as drastic cuts to legal immigration.
Lorella Praeli, ACLU director of immigration policy and campaigns, said in a press release that the administration’s plan is a “hateful, xenophobic immigration proposal” reminiscent of racist quotas from the 1920s. She said it would delay legal immigration passage for African refugees and cost taxpayers billions for a “wasteful wall” and tighter border security such as an increased number of agents.
“The crisis facing Dreamers and their families is urgent, but addressing it must not come at the expense of using immigrant youth as bargaining chips, devastating border communities with harmful, wasteful walls and agents, or taking this nativist screed seriously,” Praeli said. “This proposal should be deemed dead on arrival.”
The shutdown had given local DACA recipient Ana Laura Mendoza a short-lived hope that Congress would finally do something, but now she’s just frustrated by the “lack of action from both parties,” she says. “Democrats are full of empty promises and rhetoric…. Once again, it was made public that our lives are not as important as they claim.”
During Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, he promised the day he took office, he would end DACA. Although he didn’t do so until almost eight months into his presidency, the DACA recipients’ purgatory began the day he was sworn in.
Mendoza says combatting the drawn-out emotional struggle is the worst part. She just wants to know if she’ll have legal status. A second year political-science major at the University of Arizona, she’s unsure if she’ll be able to fulfill her aspirations of law school. She’s unsure if all the effort of college will even matter: What good is a degree if you’re not allowed to work?
Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to temporarily continue allowing DACA recipients to renew their protected status. Mendoza was one such Dreamer who didn’t make the cut for the previous deadline the administration had set. Nonetheless, she has mixed feelings: happy she and others like her could renew but upset for the prolonged uncertainty.
Without a fix for DACA, Mendoza will lose her work permit as she’s finishing her bachelor’s. She will also lose her driver’s license, not to mention the ability to walk out her front door without the fear of being deported.
A bipartisan group of senators calling themselves the “common-sense coalition,” led by moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, is meeting this week to consider Trump’s proposal and make recommendations.
“All of us realize that it’s going to take a compromise on this issue for us to get something done,” Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Any compromise the president will sign may be bittersweet for those who have been in the trenches, demanding a fix for DACA, like Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who called Trump’s proposal “an attack on immigrants and American values,” in a prepared statement last week.
“Since assuming the presidency, Trump has declared open season on this nation’s immigration policy,” Grijalva said. “Whether attacking the refugee program, enacting a racist travel ban, or unleashing ICE agents to terrorize immigrant communities, Trump has demonstrated a willingness—if not an outright desire—to destroy our immigrant heritage.”
Mendoza says she can’t get behind the idea of any compromise that includes border security measures.
“It’s so easy for us to be used as pawns,” she says. “I’m not OK with allowing one part of my community to be attacked while another is safe… It’s not just legislation that’s being decided. It’s who gets to thrive and who gets to hardly make it.”
This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2018.
This is far more simple than its made out to be. Cut the rhetoric and get to the point. Children under the age of consent (18 years old) cannot be held responsible for being brought here. They should all be citizens. Period.
” the administration’s plan is a “hateful, xenophobic immigration proposal” reminiscent of racist quotas from the 1920s”
Any proposal to cut immigration rates is racist? This is BS straight from the playbook of cheap labor industries that profit from dirt cheap labor. There is nothing wrong with cutting immigration rates. The fact is it would greatly *help* minorities in this country by increasing wages. It’s the Democrats who are playing games with Dreamers’ lives in their quest for more and more immigration that are the hateful racists.
IMO with a CBO of an estimated of 26 billion over 10 years for these illegal aliens I hope it doesn’t happen..Tweet your congressman and and senator to end DACA, Sanctuary city’s and in state tuition for illegal aliens. OR we all get out our check books.
DACA is just like the TPS program (Temporary Protective Status) the goal for Democrats is permanent placement in the U.S. “Deferred” or “Temporary” are just terms used to mislead. These are programs used by Democrats to import as many refugees from the third world as they can then fight to keep them permanently.
Democrats say you can’t deport 11 million people? end the incentives, benefits and they will leave on their own by the millions. Illegal aliens demand a clean dream Act. Translation? none or limited provisions for border security. As for the Wall? Chuck and Nancy say it won’t work. The Border Patrol says its mandatory if we want security. I’ll go with the Border Patrol’s advice. Anything Chuck & Nancy want can’t be good for the “citizens.”
There is an estimated 800,000 DACA recipients in the US. That is 800,000 jobs American Citizens don’t have or will be in competition for. There not all picking strawberries they take great Jobs. Good enough jobs to buy homes put their kids through college. So when you hear of the “contributions by illegal aliens paying taxes.” Remember that also is at a cost in jobs citizens should have.
Some of the costs associated with illegal immigration. We’ve been paying this for decades and they want it to contiinue.
*The CBO estimated it will cost to American taxpayers is 26 billion over the next 10 years.
*The cost of educating illegal aliens children is staggering. From K-12 it costs taxpayers $122,000 for EACH illegal alien student. This does not include the billions spent on bilingual education for illegal aliens.
*Now city, and state officials are appropriating millions of taxpayer dollars for legal fees to to file law suits and in defense of illegal aliens being deported.
*2012 illegal aliens sent home $62 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. This is why Mexico is getting involved in our politics.
*20% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. Does not include local jails and State Prisons. At $21,000 per year expense per inmate in Federal Prison—U do the math.
*$3Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens, I repeat 3 MILLION a DAY to process Illegals in the Criminal justice system.
*$2.2Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as SNAP (foodstamps),WIC, & free school lunches.—All can be found on google.
For DECADES, the DUPES of the Lunatic Left Wing and the Democrats have been promoting ethnic division and race-based politics (aka “racism”)
Pit America’s diverse ethnicities one against another, inflame racial passions, until an angry citizenry is driven to civil war: Then impose the Police State.
This is a CLASSIC communist strategy !