If I am being honest here, I do not get very involved in politics unless it has something to do with the natural world (ex: the recent news on national monuments like Bear’s Ear”. This subject on DACA however caught my attention the moment I heard about it. I will say with shame that the first time I heard about DACA was while scrolling through Facebook. A video raising awareness for immigrants popped up and it was so shocking because most of the people in the video where well educated, English speaking people, who I would consider to be Americans.
In my opinion DACA was a great way to add grace to a system that is often times lacking compassion for others. DACA from what I have read has some pretty steep requirements that I think gets rid of the immigrants that we don’t want in this country and brings in the ones who can help contribute to society. To summarize the requirements to be eligible for DACA, you must have been under 31 at the time DACA was put into place (June 15, 2012), you had to have been in the U.S before your 16th birthday, you must have lived here since at least 2007, you cannot have any felonies or more than 3 misdemeanors, and you must have finished high school or working towards it. That is a lot, and it seems to me that the people who meet these requirements deserve to stay.
A big thing that I cannot wrap my head around is that a baby could have been brought to the United States in 1982 with no knowledge of there parents breaking the law and lived here all their life. Now being 36, they are told to leave their home country? Do I have this mistaken, because I certainly could, but this is awful! Another thing that makes me upset about removing DACA are the students who are in college that are protected under DACA will be forced to leave, when just like all of us they are trying to be successful and educated and achieve the “American Dream”.
From the research I found online the terminating of DACA is still on hold and immigrants can still apply for renewal or first time protection under DACA. “Results of an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released in December found 62 percent of those polled wanted Congress to continue DACA, while 19 percent said Congress should take no action and let it end”(Gamboa). It seems that the majority of the United States citizens have to problem with DACA and think that it is a good program, so if we are truly a Democracy then why not give the people what they want?
Well, again I don’t know much about politics, but there is my two cents.
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