I’ve never been a supporter of wide open immigration. Without some controls over who comes to our country and how many, there’s simply no way workers aren’t going to be hurt — American and immigrant alike. But the case of DACA and the Dreamers is different, for all the reasons we’ve heard, not least of which is that they’re here, have been here, and will continue to be here whether we give them legal status or not. Immigration policy prior to Obama’s DACA order was to deport them. After DACA, the government backed off deportation and instead gave them work permits. Neither is a real solution — one is draconian, the other temporary. A more effective response to their situation would not be to deport them or relegate them to long term resident status but for them to become naturalized citizens. And therein lies the rub — according to current immigration law, they can’t.
For the record, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is an Obama program, created by executive order, that allows the foreign-born children of undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation. The program covers undocumented immigrants aged 18 through 30, and allows them to apply for work permits, social security numbers, and in some states, driver’s licenses. What isn’t included in DACA, however, is any provision for what happens after age 30. Absent a “path to citizenship,” DACA immigrants just go back to being illegal apparently, and once again subject to deportation. This is problematic.
In a fair system, DACA immigrants would have the ability to apply for citizenship, thus permanently removing the threat of deportation. But DACA is only half a solution as Obama knew. The other half — legislation which would have allowed undocumented immigrants to mend their immigration status through citizenship — was never passed. There is a chance to remedy that now. The Senate’s version of the Dream Act provides a perfectly sensible system to naturalize former DACA participants, “that allows current, former, and future undocumented high-school graduates and GED recipients a three-step pathway to U.S. citizenship through college, work, or the armed services.”
Although some Americans hate it that people move to the United States illegally and then take jobs, the people covered under DACA are not those people. Yes, they take jobs, but they’re here and were going to do so anyway. We can let them work legally or we can force them to work illegally, but if they want to live (these are over-18s, after all) they have to work. In addition, it’s not a huge class of people we’re talking about — approximately 800,000 — and would hardly crush American workers any more than they’re already being crushed by other forces such as automation and out-sourcing.
Without citizenship, programs such as DACA and other state programs that make it possible for undocumented immigrants to live and work here illegally, actually normalize a second-class citizen status for the very people they’re trying to help. There’s no doubt that keeping a class of worker who has fewer or no rights and requires lower wages than do citizens is economically beneficial to their employers, but it isn’t fair or right, and citizens and immigrants alike suffer.
Finally, if we’re going to invest in undocumented immigrants, which many states already are through public education, health care, driving privileges, and other benefits, then we really owe it to ourselves as well as them to make them citizens. For undocumented young people here in pursuit of the American dream, an important first step is to become American.
Unfortunately, this isn’t our current direction. Although over 50% of Americans think DACA immigrants should be able to naturalize, Trump is chanting the usual Republican mantra of “no amnesty” which apparently precludes citizenship. This seems counterproductive, not to mention mean, but in a way, his cancelling of DACA might actually turn out to be a good thing. It could force Congress to stop its own “deferred action,” and finally pass the Dream Act and immigration legislation in general. Not to do so causes some states to improvise outside the law and leaves nearly a million young immigrants in limbo.
