Picture yourself as a young child fleeing a country with nothing but your parents by your side, filled with hope for a brighter future. You have no idea where you are going, no idea if you will ever see some of your relatives again and no idea what your future entails.
Each “Dreamer” has a unique way of retailing that scenario, and on March 5, nearly 800,000 of them could lose their protections granted by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Their lives are worth much more than being used as a bargaining chip in the passage of immigration reform legislation. They are what makes our country — one that was built on the backs of immigrants — great.
If Congress fails to pass legislation that enacts new protections for the Dreamers by March 5, the blame will be placed right at the feet of Republicans and President Donald Trump.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll, 75 percent of Americans support a bill allowing undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to remain in the country legally; only 18 percent oppose it.
When Trump made the decision to rescind DACA on Sept. 5, 2017, it was widely known how dangerous such a move could be. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch both advised Trump to allow Congress to create a legislative solution first, rather than rescinding DACA and placing the issue on a ticking time clock of uncertainty. Trump proceeded anyway, and nearly 122 Dreamers began to lose their DACA protections each day.
A bill that simply provides the Dreamers with the protections they deserve would pass in Congress today, but Trump’s administration is now attempting to tie the Dreamers’ protections to a $25 billion request for a border wall across the country’s southern border with Mexico. Wait one second, weren’t we promised Mexico would pay for that?
It is outrageous for American taxpayers to devote $25 billion toward a border wall that will not only fail to secure our borders, but will also be immediately torn down the moment a Democrat assumes the presidency. If Trump’s eagerness to fulfill this campaign promise is as dire as it appears, it should not be proposed alongside the lives of the 800,000 Dreamers who fear deportation from the only place they call home.
Right-wing news outlets want you to believe the Dreamers are bringing crime and carnage into our country, when that could not be any further from the truth. According to a study conducted by the Cato Institute, the incarceration rate for native-born females is 2.86 times higher than the female Dreamers incarceration rate, and the incarceration rate for native-born males is 12.5 percent higher than the male Dreamers incarceration rate.
Nearly 91 percent of DACA recipients are currently employed, and that number jumps to 93 percent with recipients ages 25 and older. These people carried no weight in their parents’ decision to move to our country, but they are here now, and it is evident that they are making a contribution.
“People will gerrymander a district, gentrify a neighborhood, tear down public housing and close a dozen schools to give their kids the chance to succeed over others, but if someone tries to escape violence & poverty to give their kids a better life, those same folks call it criminal,” writer and educator Clint Smith tweeted.
Just as native-born Americans jump through hoops to provide their own children with the best possible future, immigrants to our country are only attempting to do the same.
I am hopeful legislation will be passed by Congress before March 5 to provide Dreamers protection from deportation. If not, Republicans must take the heat for choosing to tarnish our country’s great history as a welcoming home to immigrants.
Seth Nieman is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from McComb, Mississippi.
