Debate DACA

[VisionofMilotic]

Let's talk about DACA, shall we?

A decision by the supreme court came in last week on Thursday, ruling that Trump had not followed proper procedure to end DACA, thus overruling the president and preventing him from discontinuing the program for the time being.

https://time.com/5855671/daca-supreme-court/

This news is a few days old, but since nobody has made a thread about it, I decided to create one, as it is a major news event that has a lot of emotion connected with it, and there was uncertainty about how the Supreme Court would decide on this. I was pleasantly surprised by this ruling, and think it's interesting that the deciding vote in favor came from the George W Bush appointed justice John Roberts. It was a close vote, a 5-4 decision.

For those of us who may be unfamiliar, DACA/Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival is a program that was started by President Obama back in 2012. What it does is protect from deportation young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and grant them two year renewable work visas if they are now adults. These individuals are mostly English-speaking and often do not remember their birth countries or know any home other than the USA. Many have said they were never even told by their families that they were in the country illegally. A large number of DACA recipients are from countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras where there is currently some threat of violence and political instability. If deported back then they would not only be in an unfamiliar country with nowhere to go, but their lives could be at risk.

Daca currently protects close to 700,000 people, and they are nicknamed "the Dreamers." To qualify for DACA you must have been brought to the United States at age 15 years old or younger, and lived here since at least 2006. Dreamers also have to hold a high school diploma or be enrolled in school and working toward it to be eligible for the program, as well as pass a basic criminal background check.

I personally sympathize with men and women who find themselves in this situation. If you were brought over the border as just a child then you did not really have a choice about how you arrived. Since these are people who also have lived here for a long time, are law-abiding in all other respects and want to work and contribute to the society I think they deserve a chance. Their stories are not so different than many of our ancestors, unless you are Native American, and thus descended from the first people who were in the country.

Some will feel differently about this issue depending on your views on the economics of immigration, you could disagree with DACA from a legal standpoint and think the Supreme Court came to the wrong decision--that's what our comment section is for, so that everyone has a chance react, discuss, and debate with eachother, agree, disagree. Go forth and join the conversation! Leave your two cents.

Yea to DACA or Nay?

 

[Nah]

It or the idea behind it is something I've always supported. Kids don't really get to have a say in things when their parents decide to come here. Most of them are as American as those of us born here. This is their home.

I was a little surprised when I first heard the other day about how the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, ruled in favor of the dreamers, especially considering they also did the other unexpected thing earlier in the week of blocking Trump's attempt to roll back an LGBTQ protection.

But whatever might have been pleasant about the surprise was lost when I saw that it only happened because of some procedural error on the White House's part. Since they're aware of this, they'll simply run it by the Supreme Court again and make sure to follow the procedures this time. So tens or hundreds of thousands of people will be put at risk in the future, because following proper procedure is more important than doing what's right, to some people.

 

[VisionofMilotic]

I am uncomfortable as well that the fate of the dreamers, like most rulings from the court, hinge on these legal technicalities and not the larger moral issue.

The good thing for the dreamers and those of us who support them is it that they have some more time on their side. Trump moved to end Daca in 2017, but it's been a legal battle for literally years, with the lower courts deciding that if you already obtained a protected status under DACA you could continue to renew it and not be deported until the Supreme Court made a final ruling, keeping the program on life support. The highest court now has returned with that ruling, and didn't overturn DACA, saying that Trump didn't have a good reason for ending it, and sent the case all the way back to the lower courts. He walked for all these many months in a circle and is now back at square one. He might keep trying, but he could be out of office before it can even get back to the Supreme Court.

The war is far from over on immigration reform, nor is even the debate over DACA, but Trump suffered a setback at this battle at least. It's better for the dreamers than what could have happened last week, the court upholding his decision and the deportations starting. I'll count it as a victory, at least it wasn't a defeat.

 

[MarinaSpeaks]

Wow, you've summed it up really well!

Imagine you're growing up in a certain country since childhood. You take up the culture and learn the language as any native, only to realize one day later that you supposedly don't belong here. You know nothing about the country you're supposed to be in and you can barely even understand their language because your whole life English has been your main language.

I'm really saddened to see these attempts made by the Trump administration to get rid of it.. it's a capricious choice that would be devastating for hundreds of thousands of people, and DACA is only a very temporary solution benefiting productive, law abiding people AND there are still restrictions on top of that. For example, DACA recipients aren't eligible for federal student loans.

I think of DACA as only a temporary solution to a very long and arduous legal path to citizenship, and the program is supported by about 3/4ths of Americans so what's the problem exactly??? And I do think that we seriously need a better solution but until then I honesty feel like DACA should be expanded to older immigrants too. I.. also don't care so much if DACA was signed unlawfully and neither do the majority of Americans.

I'm with Nah that what matters is ultimately what's right, and proper government procedure is super arbitrary anyways.