The Ending of a Brighter Future for Immigrants
The arguably cruel decision of Trump’s final decision to end a program that has been helping children of immigrants who sacrificed their freedom for the better of their children’s education has been officially put to an end on September 5th, 2017. The Trump administration stopped considering new applications after September 5th but allowed allowed undocumented immigrants and six-month window to apply for a two-year renewal if applied before October 5th.
After the enactment of the program 5 years ago with the help of former President Barack Obama administration many individuals were able to put into effect the sacrifices their parents hoped for and work for a better future with legal protection.
Dreamers is what these 800,000 young adults are called, dreaming for a better future, education, and careers. For many individuals this is their home, it’s the only place they’ve grown up and to be told that they face the possibilities of being sent back to their “home”, a place they most likely don’t even know their way around is sad. Also, what about the DACA recipients who have invested and worked so hard in college or are still currently in college, is everything that their working or worked for all going to come to an end? Can you imagine being a current student in college close to graduating and not knowing if you’ll be deported tomorrow for the simple reason of your residence status even though you’ve never committed a crime and never really had a say in coming to the U.S. in most cases.
What is DACA?
DACA also known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program created with the purpose of allowing a temporary reprieve of deportation, work permission, education and, the legal obtention of a driver license for children brought illegally by parents. With the approval of DACA after careful background check observation, the applicants had to meet several requirements.
Why is DACA important?
During Obama’s administration, the President felt minors brought in the U.S. illegally should not be to blame for wanting a better future. What most don’t understand is that DACA didn’t provide lawful immigration status, it granted qualified recipients a delay from deportation of the U.S. Some might ask why don’t undocumented immigrants just simply apply for U.S. citizenship? However, it’s not as easy as it sounds and for some it’s not an option. Applying for citizenship is not something that can be done by simply filling out and submitting an application and waiting for a response through the mail a couple weeks later. The applicants must go through a really long process with many obstacles along the way. DACA was and still is for the mean time a legal stepping stone for a better future of several hundred thousand hopeful immigrants. Immigrants who also have the same dreams and aspirations people with legal status do of becoming doctors, lawyers, nurses or firefighters.
It’s unclear what will happen to these dreamers in the next few years. All we can do now is wait and hope that trumps administration will provide these hard working immigrants another sense of hope.