Trump’s Elimination Of DACA: Will It Finally Bring Immigration Reform?
Author: New York Immigration Lawyer Alena Shautsova
On September 5, 2017, President Trump announced the elimination of the DACA program that was established via an executive action by President Obama. The DACA program conveyed a semi-legal status to hundreds of thousands of children who were brought into the US illegally. The program was designed to help such kids who lived in the United States for at least five (5) years at the time it was established, to obtain an employment authorization and be safe from deportation. The applicants had to pay fees, have a decent criminal background and otherwise obey the laws of the United States. DACA children became DACA young adults, contributing to the United States in every way possible. They are paramedics, lawyers, contractors, managers, activists and simply Americans, without the privilege of actual US citizenship.
Trump’s move exposed something shocking and obvious: the cruelty with which politicians may decide fates of thousands of people, often the most vulnerable and dependent groups. The decision to end the program brought an outcry from all corners of the country and started to unify the lobby necessary to pass the so- needed Immigration reform finally. More than a dozen of states brought Federal complaints against Trump for ending the program. Several states and cities announced that they would become “Trump Free” zones. The society finally realized how defenseless and desperate so called “illegal” immigrants feel in the country they consider their home.
There may be various solutions to the Immigration question. All of them are likely to include the length of stay in the United States, proof of tax contributions where appropriate, acceptable criminal background, and perhaps, in the light of RAISE Act proposal, evidence of financial solvency.
While we are hopeful in looking forward, we also need to realize that every one of us who is supportive of Immigration action that would bring stability to the society has to accept civic responsibility to act in every way possible: contacting their Congressman, supporting an appropriate lobby group, and speaking up. The country as great as the United States has the means and will to do the right thing by its people, all its people.