Keep the American Dream Alive for Dreamers

Keep the American Dream Alive for Dreamers

By Ellen Birkett Morris

In his never-ending quest to destroy Barack Obama’s legacy, the current president has decided to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

DACA suspended deportation of over 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. DACA allows those migrants, popularly known as “Dreamers,” to stay in the U.S. as long as they arrived here when they were 15 years old or younger, were 30 or younger when the program began in 2012, have not been convicted of any crimes as of the time they applied for the program, and have either graduated from a U.S. high school, are currently enrolled in school, or have served in the armed forces.

The effort to end DACA is being mounted despite the fact that DACA works and has  improved the lives of its recipients and their families. A recent article on Indivisible cited that among DACA recipients:

• 95% are currently working or in school
• 48% got a job with better working conditions
• 63% got a better paying job
• 90% got a driver’s license or state ID
• 54% bought their first car
• 12% bought their first home

If the president gets his way, these productive members of society would be deported back to countries where poverty and political oppression would threaten their well-being. The absence of this engaged, productive population potentially damages the United States economy.

As House Speaker Paul D. Ryan pointed out, “These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don’t know another home. To send them back to a country they have never known would be cruel and senseless."

The fate of DACA now lies in the hands of Congress. Here are some steps you can take to help support the Dreamers. 

• Stay Informed: Get the latest on this issue and the rest of Trump’s multi-pronged anti-immigrant agenda on standup.indivisibleguide.com.

• Contact your Members of Congress and use this script to register your support of DACA: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/resource/tell-senator-defend-daca-support-durbin-graham-dream-act/

• Make sure Dreamers know where they stand: http://weareheretostay.org/resources/daca-update-five-things-you-should-know/

• Support local efforts to keep DACA in place, including the La Casita Center’s upcoming DACA Renewal Clinic and Circle of Solidarity Fundraiser: http://www.lacasitacenter.org/circle-of-solidarity-2017.html