All throughout his campaign and presidency, President Donald Trump has frequently mentioned his stance on immigration. While his wall on the US-Mexico border has yet to be put up, one battle he knows he can feasibly fight is against DACA. DACA, also known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a policy put in place by former President Obama in 2012 that allows children who were brought to the United States illegally to work and go to school here if they pass a background check. This is not a path to citizenship, but it does allow DACA recipients to live and work here in a legal manner. The recipients of DACA are commonly called Dreamers, and there are about 700,000 of them in the United States today.
While President Trump originally announced that he wanted to end the program back in 2017, this decision been taken through a few federal courts and has received a lot of pushback from those courts in an effort to keep this policy alive. Yesterday, however, the Supreme Court heard President Trump’s case against DACA. No decisions have been made, as this was just a hearing, but given the conservative tendencies of the current Supreme Court, a change may be on the horizon. The Supreme Court may be more in favor to end DACA than the rest of the court system has shown so far.
There is also the question of whether this decision regarding ending DACA is one the Supreme Court is able to make. Our federal government’s laws are rather complicated, and it is still up for debate whether the Supreme Court has the power to end a policy that was specially made during President Obama’s administration. The classification of the policy is still being determined, meaning whether a decision can be made on it or not will not be decided quite yet; and therefore, no change will take place yet either.
The effects of removing DACA would be vast and destructive. As previously stated, there are about 700,000 Dreamers, meaning that there would be that many people potentially leaving schools and workplaces. 75% of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies said that they employ Dreamers, meaning that the minds behind many potentially powerful positions would be gone if this policy were to end. In general, large industries such as those of technology are favorable to immigrants, as most leaders at those companies are immigrants themselves, even if they are not here through DACA. Tech leaders believe that ideas and innovations should not be limited by borders.
Though Dreamers were originally brought here illegally, it was through no fault of their own. Why should they be punished for a move they had no control over? These are good people who just want to live their lives in the United States, and DACA is the policy that keeps these hard-working people in the country they know and love. 700,000 people being torn away from their homes would be horrible, not only for them but for their friends, family and the economy as well.
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