DACA Is Still In Danger

As a communications major, student, US citizen and someone that has friends with DACA, I felt the obligation to briefly explain DACA and how it would affect the country. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy was created by the Obama Administration with the purpose of protecting more than 650,000 people who arrived in the United States since 2007 before they were 16 years-old, from being deported. Not only are they protected from being deported, but they are also eligible to study and legally work in the United States, as long as they don’t have a criminal record. 

In 2017, the Trump Administration presented arguments to The Supreme Court in an attempt to block this program, labeling it as illegal. Thankfully, a couple of weeks ago, The Supreme Court blocked his attempt to eliminate this program arguing that the statements presented by his administration weren’t valid points to prove that the program was illegal. 

Many people consider this action a step forward into protecting DACA recipients, however, the case was simply rejected due to their arguments being invalid and was left without setting any precedent. In other words, this case is still open which means that the Trump Administration could come back with heavier arguments and finally put an end to the program. 

Due to the nature of my work, I am constantly reading about immigration. I came across an article by The New York Times that said that powerful business leaders, such as Facebook, Google, Apple, and other powerful business executives, wrote a letter to Trump in which they express their concern about this policy which they predict will heavily affect the economy if it ends. As quoted in this article, the group wrote “their work and commitment to our companies, their families and communities are critical to our nation’s strength, especially since there are tens of thousands of DACA recipients working as front line doctors and nurses and in other critical industries fighting Covid-19.”

A Queens Immigration Attorney, Philip Velez, said that “anything could happen, really. This might be the end of this great program if this administration is elected for another 4-year period. That’s why we have to ask our friends and families who can vote, to consciously vote for a president that can protect all of us, regardless of our status in this country.”

Trump has not made any official remarks yet, but he has made some comments about the possibility of leaving DACA in place because he has “the power to do it as President,” in his own words, though no official statement has been released about it yet.

In this post, I kindly ask all of you, to vote. Please, be human and vote for someone that will work for all of us, regardless of our skin color, social status, or legal status in The United States of America. And if you can’t vote for whatever reason, voice your opinion, share valuable information on your social media, so others can learn about the importance of leaving DACA in place.