DACA and the DREAMERS

DACA is a US Federal government program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, created in 2012 under then-President Barack Obama to allow individuals brought to the US illegally as children the temporary right to live, study and work in America. Those applying are vetted for any criminal history or threat to national security and must be students or have completed school or military service. If they pass vetting, action to deport them is deferred for two years, with a chance to renew, and they become eligible for basics like a driving license, college enrollment or a work permit.

DREAMER is the label for a person covered by the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. [Note: this Act never became law.] Those protected under DACA are known as “Dreamers”. By the time President Trump announced his decision to rescind the program, 787,580 had been granted approval under DACA. To apply, they must have been younger than 31 on 15 June 2012, when the program began, and “undocumented” - lacking legal immigration status. They must have arrived in the US before turning 16 and lived in the US continuously since June 2007. Most Dreamers are from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and the largest numbers live in California, Texas, Florida and New York. They range in age from 15 to 36 (according to the White House)
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The Trump administration announced that it plans to scrap DACA. Attorney general Jeff Sessions said the US would end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in March 2018. Congress was given up to six months to find a legislative alternative. Sessions announced that new DACA applications would no longer be accepted.

This proclamation stimulated almost 800,000 people into turmoil and fear. Keep in mind that these are people who have come to the USA illegally, and may have no intention to rescind citizenship in their former country. They want to work in the USA, but they may not be interested in citizenship. The majority may only desire green-card worker status.

The question should be whether those who broke the US immigration law to live and work in the USA should be provided special dispensation to remain in the US ahead of those who have adhered to the US immigration law in seeking to live and work in the USA. Should law-breakers get special treatment in preference to law-keepers?

The DACA program was a compromise devised by the Obama administration after Congress failed to pass the so-called Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would have offered those who had arrived illegally as children the chance of permanent legal residency. This bipartisan act was introduced in 2001 and has repeatedly failed to pass into law.

There is no bipartisan support for allowing law-breakers special dispensation regarding immigration. However, the Obama Administration enacted Presidential Executive Order(s) providing such special dispensation even though the US Congress has not allowed such dispensation to become law.

The Trump Administration has announced that it would begin “an orderly, lawful wind down” of DACA, including “the cancellation of the memo that authorized this program”. This referenced memo was sent from Obama Administration Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to immigration chiefs in 2012, telling them not to enforce deportation of Dreamers.

Because President Obama created the DACA program as an executive policy decision, President Trump has the power to simply reverse the policy. He indicated that the government will “generally not take actions” to remove law-abiding DACA recipients. President Trump gave Congress six months to come up with a legislative solution.

Under the Trump administration, new applications under DACA will no longer be accepted. For those currently in the program, their legal status and other DACA-related permits (such as to work and attend college) will begin expiring in March 2018. Those with work permits expiring between 5 September 2017 and 5 March 2018 will be allowed to apply for renewal by 5 October. Unless Congress passes legislation allowing a new channel for temporary or permanent legal immigration status, Dreamers will all lose their status by March 2020.

Technically, as their statuses lapse, they could be deported and sent back to their countries of origin. These individuals may have no familiarity with the country of their origin because many of them came to the USA as children when they and their parents managed illegal entry into the USA. It is unclear whether this will or will not happen. Fear had been rising in the US illegal-alien community due to the announcement that the program will be ending. There is as yet no alternative to the current DACA-DREAMER provisions that will completely expire by March 2020.

President Trump has said (according to The Guardian) "...he wanted to “work something out” for Dreamers. “We don’t want to hurt those kids,” he said. “We love the Dreamers.” On the day the end of Daca was announced, he said: “I have advised the department of homeland security that Daca recipients are not enforcement priorities unless they are criminals, are involved in criminal activity, or are members of a gang.”"

It is estimated by un-documented sources that there may be as many as 11 million undocumented persons in the USA at this time.

Most of the Information for this article is taken (and somewhat rearranged) from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/donald-trump-what-is-daca-dreamers