Donald Trump has rescinded the protection President Obama gave to "Dreamers", and if Congress doesn't act soon, they will face deportation (even though the U.S. is the only country they have known and they contribute greatly to it).
Poll after poll has shown the American people don't support deporting the Dreamers, and that includes many conservatives. But Donald Trump and the congressional Republicans are holding these young people as hostages to get political gain. That is just so wrong.
Here is what the editorial board of the traditionally conservative Fort Worth Star-Telegram has to say about it:
Striking a deal in Washington often requires horse trading. We understand that. But when one of the bargaining chips is the lives of some 800,000 immigrants brought here as children — 120,000 in Texas — the negotiating takes on a sickening smell.
This week members of Congress and President Donald Trump are trading demands for what it will take to continue the DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, program.
The program, started by President Obama, has provided work permits and a reprieve from deportation for some immigrants who were brought here by their parents and have never really known their birth countries.
The DACA recipients, called Dreamers, have graduated from high schools and attended colleges here. They hold respectable jobs. They serve in our military.
You can argue that their parents should be held accountable for illegally entering the United States. But it seems wrong to blame and punish young people, many who were barely out of diapers when adults decided they should grow up in the United States.
President Trump has given Congress a March 15 deadline to come up with a legal fix for the Dreamers or they’ll face deportation.
Most congressional Democrats and a fair number of Republicans want to find a solution that will allow the Dreamers to stay. The President told a bipartisan congressional delegation Tuesday if Congress can pass a plan that does that he’ll sign it. The hitch seems to be the President’s demand that border security and funding for a wall with Mexico be part of a deal.
Most everyone agrees we need a secure border. But defining what constitutes security and then paying for it has alluded Congress and previous administrations unable to adopt meaningful immigration reform. Texas has spent millions in state tax dollars on border surveillance arguing the federal government can’t seem to get the job done.
Linking these young people to a plan for border security is ridiculous. How is the border any more secure if they are deported?
It’s pretty clear that in the current negotiations what happens to the Dreamers has been thrown into a messy mix of immigration proposals, many too volatile to pass on their own. Elected officials who want a border wall, an end to the diversity visa lottery program and some other measures realize there’s an emotional value to using the Dreamers as bait.
We believe the continuation of the DACA program and the future of the Dreamers should be addressed on their own merits. Congress is playing with the lives of real people we all know.
They aren’t just another policy and shouldn’t be held hostage by lawmakers or the President who want funding for a plan that includes a border wall.
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