Democrats in Congress ended the short-lived government shutdown, on Monday morning, which could have leveraged a fix for DACA. But instead, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer settled for a vague promise from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to schedule a vote by Feb. 8, once again leaving 3.6 million Dreamers, about 800,000 of which have legal status under DACA, in limbo.
At first, the shutdown gave local DACA recipient Ana Laura Mendoza a bit of 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 or not, either way. 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 order 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 right 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.
CNN reported on Tuesday that Sen. Schumer was rescinding a recent proposal to the White House, which included funding for a border wall in exchange for Dreamer protection.
“President Trump’s unwillingness to compromise caused the Trump shut down and brought us to this moment,” Schumer said in a televised speech.
On Tuesday night, Trump tweeted “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA”—making the GOP leadership’s “promise” on a DACA fix seem all the more obsolete.
As far as Mendoza is concerned, 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 legislature that’s being decided. It’s who gets to thrive and who gets to hardly make it.”
This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2018.
Trump will do more this next month than Obama accomplished in 8 years. DACA will be fixed. Strengthen border security with a wall. Better paying jobs. Growing stock market. Prosecute FBI frauds and HRC.
“We’re going to morph into it,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years.” Trump’s 10 to 12 year plan is an impediment to the Citizenship process.
Members of Congress should know from experience that Trump is a Mentally Unstable Habitual Liar. He has no intention of granting Citizenship to individuals brought to this country as Children. He wants/intends to have them deported to Countries of which they have no practical knowledge or experiences.
Congress has Constitutional Coequal Powers and should use them in granting Citizenship to these approximately 700,000 defacto US Citizens. Trump’s role in this process, and generally regarding Domestic and National Security Issues, must be marginalized!
Donald Trump’s denigration of anyone that disagrees with him and his characterization of information about him in the Press as “fake news” are symptomatic of: an Unstable Personality or an intentional effort to undermine the underpinning of our Democracy; Free Speech and a Free Press.
Any Objective Analysis of the Facts clearly indicates that: Donald Trump is a Racist Neo Nazi, an Inveterate Liar, and Mentally Unstable. He is a threat to our Constitutionally Protected Freedoms and Nationally Security, and, as such, he MUST be Removed from Office Forthwith!!!
“Trump will do more this next month than Obama accomplished in 8 years.”
Yup, that statement is definitely a fact.
tRump will do more tweeting, golfing and damage to this country this next month than Obama accomplished in 8 years.
The rest of Wayne’s comment is not so factual though.
Trump just forced the issue. DACA should be happy that a final fix is coming.
They could pass this in a day if they just make a deal that prevents these issues in the future. Mandatory e-verify (to turn off the job magnet for illegal immigration) and reasonable limitations on chain migration (among other things so DACA recipients can’t sponsor the parents that brought them here illegally in the first place) would be a great start. Why do Democrats oppose these straightforward measures and why are they playing games with DACA recipients lives in order to continue to oppose reasonable immigration limitations?
The Dems. want more voters, plain and simple. I say let them all in, but they can’t vote for 10 years. See how many Dems. go for that.