If you have been anywhere on social media recently or turned on the news then you most likely have heard or seen the discussion that people are having about President Trump’s call to repeal DACA and have been left with a variety of questions concerning what exactly DACA is, why President Trump chose to end it, why you keep seeing the term “dreamer” used and the effect that its end is going to have. We at Her Campus FSU are here to help make things a little clearer for you!
What is DACA?
DACA is a program that began in June 2012 under President Obama through an Executive Branch memorandum. DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Essentially what this means is that with DACA a protection was granted to young undocumented immigrants, who moved to this country with their parents, from being deported. Additionally, this deferred action allows for the individuals who receive DACA to be considered for employment authorization.
Why are those affected by DACA called “Dreamers”?
An essential part of DACA is an act known as the DREAM Act. DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. What this DREAM Act does is grants a conditional residency for alien minors who meet specific guidelines and the possibility after meeting further qualifications for permanent residency in the United States.
Courtesy: MotherJones and Mark Rightmire
What exactly did DACA do?
DACA allowed for certain undocumented immigrants who met the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services guidelines and who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two year period of deferred action from deportation and the ability to receive an EAD (Employment Authorization Documents). What this has done is allow young immigrants to go to school, get a job and live their lives to the best of their capability without the fear of suddenly being deported weighing over their heads.
What were the guidelines that those receiving DACA had to abide by?
The guidelines that recipients of DACA had to abide by were that they had to be under the age of 16 when they came to the United States, they had to have continuously resided within the United States since June 12, 2007, and cannot have been convicted of a felony or significant misdemeanor.
What could have made President Trump decide to end the program?
DACA has been a program that the GOP has had issues with since its push as an executive order under President Obama. Currently, President Trump is pushing for Congress to legalize and pass their own DACA program within the next 6 months.
According to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), what this call to end DACA means is that they are currently no longer taking any initial requests for the program as of September 5, 2017. But, if you have an initial request pending that has already been filed, those requests will be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis. If you are currently a recipient of DACA and your benefits expire before March 5, 2018, then you have until October 5, 2017, to request a renewal. As of right now, if an individual’s DACA expires their case will not be proactively given to ICE or CBP for any purposes of immigration enforcement.
It is important to remember that the end of this program is effecting over 800,000 people in the United States and is effecting students right here at our university. There are students like Maria R. who I talked to over last week and who is a current recipient under the DACA program. Maria immigrated to the United States in 2000, when she was almost 5 years old, with her family from Colombia. Her family had decided to move to the United States because while her mother was mayor of her hometown in Colombia she began to be targeted with death threats from a terrorist organization, who went as far as killing her mother’s bodyguard. Maria’s father had been a vet at the time and had come across an ad from a dairy farmer in the United States that was looking for a vet for his cows. The farmer had been sponsoring Maria’s family which allowed for them to move to the U.S., but at the end of 2000, her family found out that the farmer had sold the farm without telling them and never actually sponsored them and was instead exploiting them. Since then, her family has had difficulty finding a lawyer to represent them and they were denied their attempt at residency in 2008.
Currently how Maria, and many others who are in situations similar to her own, has been reacting throughout this past week have been with anxiety and worry. Maria said that leading up to the decision she knew that it was going to happen and it was weighing on her to the point of causing her to have panic and anxiety attacks. When she had heard Attorney General Jeff Sessions make the announcement concerning the issue saying that it was a matter of securing the border and that these actions were taking place in order to make the American people safe it greatly bothered her. The language he used in the announcement and the way that he had spoken had disturbed her because the guidelines for those receiving DACA are strictly enforced and no criminal is going to be able to take advantage of or abuse the program. Additionally, his language of referring to undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens” felt dehumanizing to Maria and as though he, and others in positions of power like Sessions, thought of the people that this was effecting as “boogeymen.” Maria felt as though President Trump could have kept the program up and running while an alternative action was being put together. However, Maria continues to have hope that congress will be able to pass something similar to the DREAM Act.
To stay up to date on this issue and similar immigration issues you can follow attorneys such as David Leopold and groups like UndocuMedia on social media. If you would like to help those being effected by the end of this program remember to contact your local or state representatives and senators to share your opinions and viewpoints. In Tallahassee, if you or someone you know is being affected, you can contact the Center for Advancement of Human Rights and the counseling center on campus. Reaching further outside of Tallahassee you can contact organizations like ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the National Immigration Law Center, and United We Dream. All these organizations are open to donations if you have the desire and capability to help.