DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program from the Obama era that protects undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from being deported. It was announced on Tuesday, September 5th to be terminated by President Trump and the Trump Administration. DACA recipients have the opportunity to renew their DACA for another two years but after that short time period, they have been advised by the Department of Homeland Security to actively prepare for their departure from the United States. This has affected approximately 800,000 young Americans.
Whilst Trump has defended the decision by claiming it is to better help and provide for the Americans he was elected to serve, what does this mean for undocumented immigrants and more specifically, undocumented Asians and Asian Americans?
This decision to end DACA has been met with relentless criticism by many Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) groups. AAPI politicians and citizens alike have insisted that it is an attack on immigrant communities all across America as well as a stab to America’s immigrant beginnings and morals.
Out of the many countries DACA protects, South Korea, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines are amongst some of the largest populations of where undocumented individuals emigrate from. These are the very people who come to the United States seeking to educate themselves with higher education or to find work and contribute to the country’s growing economy.
Unfortunately, families of DACA will suffer from the effects of the program’s termination as they will face deportation unless Congress will find a way to keep it. The lives of the very people who are our neighbors, our colleagues, our classmates, and our friends will be changed to a heartless and cruel extent. They will lose their jobs, their education, and their home that they have worked hard for as they are forced to leave the United States.
Those who have DACA until its expiration in March of 2018 are set to stay in America. However, recipients can also renew their DACA until October 5 for an additional two years after the 2018 expiration date. But the question of “What’s next?” for these families still holds a grip in the unnerving future.