With President Trump in office, many changes have risen that affect students, families, and individuals nationwide. Yesterday, March 5th, marked doomsday for many immigrants who are current DREAMERS and protected under the DACA legislation. Many DREAMERS can no longer renew their DACA protection, and deportation is a fear that is trembling over recipient’s heads. Through this chaos of families getting pulled from jobs, home, and their lives, President Trump has made his perspective as clear as a cloudless day: allow immigration from Asian countries and white countries such as Norway; prevent immigration from “shit-hole” countries such as Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries. Trump claims his reason for believing this is because he wants countries that offer economic and political benefits to the United States. This means higher deportation rates for Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries. This means fear.

THE BEGINNING

Let’s start from the beginning. The very beginning. In 2001, a Dream Act was presented to congress with the goal of providing law abiding immigrant’s permanent citizenship. This act did not get passed, but the word “dream” seemed to stick with these politically active immigrants, fighting for legality. The American dream was their goal.

In 2012 Barack Obama passed the DACA legislation. DACA is short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The notion was that immigrants ranging from the age of 16-35 most likely migrated when they were children, unable to have a say in the process. Obama wanted to protect these migrants, offering a two-year renewable program that provides a work visa, health care, access to higher education, and protection from deportation. There are regulations and restrictions being covered under the DACA legislation. For example: you must be in school, you can not have a serious criminal record, and you must provide information to support your efforts in contributing to the nation. These restrictions are placed in stone to hopefully weave out any immigrants who are not positively contributing to the nation. Many immigrants contribute in the labor force, doing the necessary, but unwanted jobs like construction, cleaning, outdoor work, etc.

THE END

November 8th, 2016, Donald Trump was elected into office. He quickly took actions against the removal of the DACA legislation; many have seen Trump as hostile to immigration in general. By September 2017, president Trump ended the DACA legislation, leaving roughly 2 million possible recipients’ lives upside-down. Despite the backlash towards this course of action, no new arrangements have been put in place to protect DREAMERS.

As one can assume, many members of Congress did not agree with this course of action, and they took further steps to investigate the decision made by Trump. Court cases are occurring to determine the legality of this decision because many members of congress believe that the White House did not follow the necessary legal steps when dismembering such an impactful administration.

Congress has not yet developed a legislation that would properly protect DREAMERS from deportation and to more importantly, give DREAMERS the chance to gain citizenship. The problem and the reason for such a long limbo period for a new administration is the failure of Democrats and Republicans to agree. The Republican Party refuses to agree to any new legislation that supports a path to citizenship if it does not include substantial funding for border security (building a wall, patrolling, etc.)

WHERE DREAMERS STAND NOW

March 5th marked the day that DREAMERS could no longer renew their DACA protection, resulting in possible deportation, discrimination, and legal issues. Although a temporary preliminary injunction was set in place (the allowance to renew DACA until the courts have legally decided if Trump’s course of actions were correct), not every state and district follow this policy.

Senator John McCain and Senator Christopher A Coons have constructed a deal called the Bipartisan Immigration Deal. Although the deal has not officially passed in congress, it pleases both political parties, offering protection and a path to citizenship for DREAMERS, in addition to offering funding for greater border security. The goal is that immigrants who have received DACA since 2013 will receive legal residency and citizenship.

However, because of the Trump Administration’s strict beliefs on certain countries offering more economic and political benefits to America over other countries, the fear of stricter citizenship laws is a problem for migrants from countries such as Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries.

Your neighbor, family friend, peer, boss, or acquaintance, can be affected by this. Take a step back, look around, do you really know where everyone is from? Do you really know what they provide to the economy?