One Year Anniversary of the Implementation of DACA

In August for the one year anniversary of the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) the president, vice president and other Administration officials met some of the recipients. DACA has 430,000 recipients as of July 31; these young Americans want to better their families and communities. Barack Obama realizes this is not the solution because it does not provide a path to earn citizenship and is not a permanent legal status. The white house released a report to highlight the economic benefits of a comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that in a course of ten years the U.S. GDP would increase by $1.4 trillion, “increase total income for all Americans by $791 billion, generate $184 billion in additional state and federal tax revenue… and add about 2 million jobs to the U.S economy.”

This memorandum was passed because Obama promised the Hispanic community that he would pass an immigration reform and had failed. It was a political tactic to maintain his popularity among the Hispanic community in the presidential elections of 2012. Nonetheless, it is helping thousands of young Americas to accomplish their dreams. As a recipient I agree with Obama that “‘[t]he time has come for comprehensive, sensible immigration reform. We are making progress, but we’ve got to finish the job.’” I strongly believe some undocumented people have earned the right to be recognized as U.S. citizens. For example, to eligible for DACA you had to be between 16 and were 30 before June 15, 2012, lived in the United States for at least the past five years without leaving the country, currently in school, graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, or obtained a GED, or have been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States, and -very importantly- you do not have a criminal record or minor misdemeanor like a traffic ticket. These are good and young people who want to be productive citizens.  

 Undocumented immigrants are stereotyped as poor and lazy but there are structures in the government that don’t allow us to reach the American dream because it turns into a nightmare. This is why only 5 percent of undocumented student attend college. I was fortunate enough to make it into the five percent because I had a teacher, Mr. Jackson who cared enough to do everything he could to get me into Stetson. It is very hard because I don’t know whether I will be her the next semester or if I will graduate and if I do, whether I would be able to get a job. I think it’s time for a comprehensive immigration reform because there are hundreds of mix-families. “Nationwide, there are approximately four million U.S. citizen children with at least one unauthorized‐immigrant parent, and policies that target their parents have grave effects on the children ("Breaking Down the Problems…”16).” It is morally wrong to separate families.      

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/08/15/one-year-anniversary-implementation-deferred-action-policy-dreamers

"Breaking Down the Problems: What's Wrong with Our Immigration System?"

            /immigrationpolicy.org. N.p., Oct. 2009. Web. 16