Talking About DACA

You've heard the news - DACA is rescinded unless Congress comes up with a plan that will save it by March 2018. The program was enacted by President Obama in 2012, and it allowed those who were brought to America illegally as children and who have been here continuously since 2007 to pay $495 each to apply for DACA benefits, and pay $495 every two years to renew their application, undergo the background check, and receive permission to work, to go to school, to serve in the military, to pay taxes, and so on. Criminals and gang members need not apply. 

There are some 800,000 people in the program whose long-term fate is now unknown. Will their employers keep them, knowing that they can be eligible for deportation if Congress doesn't act? Should they pay for their next semester of school? Should they re-up for the military, or get out now?

And, what happens if they get deported? They have no home - many came here at the age of two, three, maybe six years old. The have siblings who are American citizens, parents who are illegal, and they are here because we invited them to come forward, out of the shadows, go through the application process, and get our stamp of approval. 

We happily took their application fees, to the tune of around $400,000,000 not counting renewals - but now, they're job stealers. Oh, sorry - now they're pawns in a game of It's All About that Base. Oh, wrong again, sorry. Now, they're victims of an unconstitutional act by the former president, and so, their time is up.

Here's what a variety of people are saying about the decision, announced not by president Trump, the coward, but by his immigration hardliner Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.

Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result.But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak? - Barack Obama

At this point the question is, 'Okay, you no longer have that legal, that status that President Obama gave you and he had no authority to give you. So, you're back into your illegal status, I would suggest go home and get in line, come into the United States legally, then get a green card, then become a citizen. "Do it the right way like so many hundreds of thousands of your countrymen are trying to do. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with following the law?" - Kris Kobach

I think that it's a known fact that there are over 4 million unemployed Americans in the same age group as those that are DACA recipients; that over 950,000 of those are African Americans in the same age group; over 870,000 unemployed Hispanics in the same age group.  Those are large groups of people that are unemployed that could possibly have those jobs. - Sarah Huckabee Sanders

The decision to end DACA is not just wrong. It is particularly cruel to offer young people the American Dream, encourage them to come out of the shadows and trust our government, and then punish them for it. This is a sad day for our country. - Mark Zuckerberg

First, let’s not think Trump — who invites cops to abuse suspects, who thinks ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio was “doing his job” when denying others their constitutional rights and who issued the Muslim ban — cares about the Constitution (any of the “twelve” articles). Trump says, “We love the dreamers. … We think the dreamers are terrific.” But in fact he loves the applause he derives from his cultist followers more than anything. Otherwise he’d go to the mat to defend the dreamers and secure their legal status. - Jennifer Rubin 

250 of my Apple coworkers are #Dreamers. I stand with them. They deserve our respect as equals and a solution rooted in American values. #Dreamers contribute to our companies and our communities just as much as you and I. Apple will fight for them to be treated as equals.. - Tim Cook 

Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can't, I will revisit this issue! - Donald Trump

That last one? Yeah, who knows what he's talking about.