In a few days, the Trump’s administration will announce whether it will choose to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which would put in jeopardy the future of thousands of undocumented immigrant youth. President Obama created DACA as an executive order to protect young adults who came to the United States when they were children from deportation. The executive order was a pragmatic political act by the Democratic president before his election in 2012 to reconnect with immigrant communities after years of unsuccessful attempts to pass any kind of progressive
immigration reform in Congress.DACA provides those eligible with protection from deportation and a work permit.
The DREAMers (those impacted by DACA) and immigrant rights organizations have begun to mobilize to bring the issue to the forefront of the political agenda and with the news media. But where are the Democrats — Obama, the Clinton’s, Gore, Pelosi, Velasquez, and so on? They need to stand up and build a human shield to protect the DREAMers from the Trump administration. Every DACA registrant has giving to the Federal Government all possible personal information (address, name of parents, report cards, DoB, etc). The Democrats made a mistake by creating this political illusion for a cheap political gain and now it’s time to fix this error. The lives of the DREAMers and their whole families are in the hands of an irrational, heartless and violent administration.
In 2012 the Humanist Party in New York stood against support of DACA in its form and published the following piece, called Letter to our DREAMers:
On Friday, June 15, 2012, President Obama announced the implementation of Deferred Action to stop the deportation of some young undocumented immigrants. The Humanist Party of New York is very concerned about the response to this action, as seen in the press and from some immigrant organizations, calling it “a historic stand”, and “… applauds Obama Immigration Policy”.The Democratic Party didn’t have the dignity to recognize this opportunist act as part of a political strategy for the presidential campaign. Why does so much of the press and so many immigrant organizations give so much credit to the administration for so little? Are most immigrant organizations subcontractors of the Democratic Machine?
The system has never given you much respect and this new measure from the President is not going in the right direction. DREAMers: keep pressuring the elected officials and institutions, keep occupying offices and don’t let these meaningless political maneuvers take your movement away! Everybody else has much more to lose that you do; the future is on your side.
As youth and DREAMers living in America, the minimum right that is respectable and acceptable is to become a citizen and get the right to vote, so you can make sure that such a situation will never happen gain. Do not settle for anything less.
Ending DACA has been part of Trump’s political agenda, as is pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. These are political promises supported by the millions of Americans who voted for him. These are democratic issues that need to be addressed by a political movement ready to engage in discussion with both Trump voters and the people that didn’t vote. The non-voters have their share of responsibilities in our present political situation. Voting is the “minimum wage” of our democracy and voting is always useful, regardless of what the media and mainstream opinion say (but that’s a discussion for an other time).
