Today is March 5th and the Dreamers still live in fear. Through all the political rhetoric over the immigration status of the Dreamers over the last few months, the March 5th deadline loomed over everyone, the right, the left and the Dreamers. It was supposed to be the defining moment for immigration reform. Guess what? Today is the 5th and the Dreamers still live in fear.
Why?
The answer is simple, immigrants are fodder for the political class of the United States.
Immigrants lube the economic engine of the United States, but no one, neither the voters nor the politicos want to admit that because once you take away the immigration debate, the politicos are left with nothing to distract the voters with.
On September 5, 2017, Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, also known as the Dreamers protection. Protection, instead of legislation because DACA was implemented by the Barack Obama administration to protect undocumented immigrants brought into the United States as children. This is where the Dreamer Odyssey began.
Obama promised to fix the immigration problem, like his predecessors, when he ran for office. Obama may have wanted to solve the immigration issue, but ultimately, the immigration issue was put on the back-burner by Obama so that he could focus on ObamaCare, or the Affordable Healthcare Act. Obama used his political capital on ObamaCare and as result the best he could do was to temporarily protect 800,000 Dreamers through an Executive Order.
But this is not just an Obama failure because George W. Bush also promised immigration reform as he strode into office only to ignore it because he felt slighted by Vicente Fox’s vote against the invasion of Iraq at the United Nations.
This is a politico problem with both sides of the political spectrum using immigrants as political fodder.
When Donald Trump ended Obama’s DACA order, all three sides, Trump, the Republicans and the Democrats took to the airwaves and promised a solution because they “cared” about the Dreamers. Yes, Trump ended DACA, but he also argued that he wanted Congress to fix the issue through legislation.
Trump is right. An Executive Order is temporary, subject to the whim of any president. It provides a temporary, albeit, incomplete solution to a complex problem.
Although much pontification of a “solution” was made, the result is that the Dreamers still live in limbo. They have neither long-term protection – unable to make life decisions – and new entrants into DACA are now impossible.
But, but, some of you may be thinking, the Supreme Court ruled that the government must continue to process DACA renewals. Under DACA, the recipients are given two-year permits to work and avoid deportation. Every two-years they must reapply. But, as of now, new applications into the DACA program are not possible.
The Democrats shutdown the government for a weekend and pontificated about how they would not “deal” with Donald Trump, if the Dreamers weren’t included.
Donald Trump promised he would sign any legislation Congress put on his desk. Trump then added that without money for The Wall, there would be no signature.
The Republicans vacillated between no amnesty and a solution for the Dreamers.
In the end, nothing.
The government is now operating under a two-year spending pact that adds trillions in government debt.
The DACA program did not get resolved. Trump did not get The Wall money he demanded. The taxpayers will now pay more for the debt that is being incurred.
In other words, nothing was accomplished.
As for the Dreamers, they continue to live in fear because for the politicos, they are nothing more than fodder for the next election.
Martin
Trump fault again! So tell us Obama had the chance to fix the problem but didn’t! So it’s Obama’s fault too. Neither of the parties want to fix the problem it make them to much money as an issue!
Thomas, there is a lot to criticize me about my blogs, but take a moment to read for comprehension. Specifically the sentence about Trump doing the right thing to end DACA, to force the proper legislation through, as well as the point about this being an issue with THREE sides: Trump, the Democrats and the Republicans. All are to blame equally! -martin
Congress, not the POTUS, is supposed to make our laws. DACA did not have the force of law and Trump threw it over the fence back to where it belongs – with Congress. Duh….
I just wish the government were as concerned with real Americans as it is with illegal immigrants.
The Ds threw the working class under the bus some time ago and used them for political fodder. This is what they are now doing to the Dreamers and other immigrants. They serve the Ds’ political agenda.
Then along came Bernie y el trompas. We saw how the Ds attempted to discredit Bernie. Then they went after el trompas with the Russians are coming insanity. It’s always someone else’s fault they didn’t win. Maybe a little self-analysis is wise, acknowledging how it just may be they who are at fault.
A brave group of Dreamers walked from Florida to D.C. hoping for an audience with the Si Se Puede guy. Pero no se pudo, wouldn’t have them over at the Rose Garden for a beer and a chat.
The Dreamers have decided that they will no longer live in the shadows, that they deserve better; they are willing to fight and we should support them.
So vet those pols, ask the hard questions when they come around for your vote, D voters. As Albert Camus said “It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioner”. Do the right thing and speak up for the Dreamers and all immigrants.
“For us, Daca is not an immigration crisis. It is a human rights crisis. And human rights cannot be deferred. Every day approximately 122 people lose Daca protection. This cruel policy immorally punishes and traumatizes innocent young people and their families.
As Indigenous Peoples, we know our history and we know our relatives. Many so-called “undocumented” people are in fact Indigenous Peoples, children of Original Nations with a millennial history of travel across the continent to trade and engage in ceremonial obligations at sacred sites of their traditional territories before the US existed.
The US-Mexico border is not an indigenous border. Similarly, to citizens of the Onondaga Nation – part of the Six Nation Haudenosaunee Confederacy, what you call the Iroquois – the US-Canadian border runs through traditional lands that we view as one inseparable nation.”
The above citation from an article by Betty Lyons “Dreamers must be protected – as Indigenous Peoples were not” in the Guardian, 3/3/18.
Children of Original Nations, indeed.
Nearly 40 years of this crap and neither party is going to do shit about like always. It’s a money maker for the politicians.
Martin and Pati Americans have dreams too but as of the last two to three decades pretty much we do not count. All I can say to the dreamers is get in line with the rest of us nothing gives you the right to be put at the head of the line for anything!