DACA

DACA is a program only present in the United States and was created by President Obama in 2012 to temporarily protect children who were brought here when they were younger from deportation and grant them the opportunity to work and study legally in the U.S. for two years. Over 800,000 Dreamers are in this program and continue to renew it every two years. Recently, Donald Trump has put DACA on hold giving Congress the job to create a better system for Dreamers, putting it nicely. This blog will focus on the impact Dreamers have in this country, as well as immigrants as a whole and the significance DACA has in America and American politics.

For my first source, I will be extracting information and immigration facts on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) a report from the educational site of Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings on August 14th, 2013 about a year after DACA’s establishment. The article talks about DACA itself and begins with explaining what DACA is and who it is for as well as the process of how one can qualify for the program and apply. The report goes into detail of the DACA applications and how the statistics present depend on demographics, geographic distribution, age, and the year of arrival of applicants. The report uses information from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as well as the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for applications filed on August 15, 2012, and June 30, 2013, for the statistics used. Brookings FOIA shows that DACA recipients were born in 192 different countries. 25 countries with 1,000 applicants together accounted for 96% of all applications.

For my second source, I will be using a recent article shedding light on Donald Trump putting an expiration date on DACA. The article begins with including excerpts of Trump’s speech as he declared his news of action on DACA implying that kids shouldn’t be punished for their parent’s actions as if their parents are at fault in which they are one hundred percent not. Donald also included looking forward to work with both Democrats and Republicans on the issue while placing hard-working citizens first, as if he hasn’t passed any effective legislation he suddenly will now. The article then began to talk about the effects of this announcement on DACA and how the future is uncertain for Dreamers regarding their protection from deportation, their ability to work and study legally and how extended their stay in this country will be. Trump recently said he will give news on DACA in December of 2017.

It’s important to note that Dreamers come from all over the world and that everyone was once an immigrant themselves, their ancestors and immigrants helped build this country. Their contributions are great, and they can’t go on unnoticed.

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DACA_singer_svajlenka_FINAL.pdf

https://www.npr.org/2017/09/05/546423550/trump-signals-end-to-daca-calls-on-congress-to-act