Now what?
Months ago, the president of the United States decided to rescind a program that most didn’t have a issue with, the DACA program. He gave congress six months to figure out something that they’ve been trying to figure out for twenty years. Thankfully, courts have ruled in the favor of dreamers across the country, though this eased our minds and our hearts because we can now continue to not worry about being employed or holding status (for now). But before congress had a deadline to set up a plan to help dreamers. The deadline was March 5th, which is now long gone and now in the shadows and there has been no change. President Trump called on congress to fix a broken immigration system and help kids who came here at no fault of their own.
There is no longer an urgency to come up with plan, let’s be honest - there never was. When asked who dreamers would like to speak to durning a march in D.C., dreamers didn’t say members of the senate or the house. They didn’t say the president. They said they’d like to speak to Paul Ryan, who had falsely made promises of fast change and immigration reform and has yes to introduce a bill to congress. There have been many bipartisan bills proposed and none have made it, understandable, laws take time to pass, but dreamers don’t have that kind of time. We’re starting and finishing school, we’re buying homes, and starting families. We don’t have time for congress to make a slow decision because in the end they aren’t going to please everyone. It’s impossible, pleasing everyone would mean that this proposal would have to be perfect however, perfection is impossible especially in politics. It’s not about whether the Supreme Court will rule whether or not the repeal was constitutional, I don’t really give a flying fuck about that aspect. What I want, speaking on behalf of dreamers and undocumented immigrants, is change. We want change. We want a clean Dream Act.
If you don’t want us here cool, our loss - but yours more than ours. You’re losing future doctors, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, and most importantly people, who love this country more than themselves, who fight for place in this country, a country that has being their home for more than half their lives. But if you decide that you don’t want us here, tell us.
I’m not saying everyone is going to leave because unfortunately some of us literally can’t survive in the countries we were born in but at least we won’t live in hope of being citizens of this country one day. Now, just a disclaimer, we cannot vote but the people who love us can, and I have faith that one day the American people will chose government officials who are willing to fight for people like us. I know they exist. I’ve met them.
If you believe that Dreamers are worth the fight please call your congress members, even if they don’t listen to their messages or their mailboxes are full, these calls do make a difference.
