Implemented on the 15th of August 2012, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, is an Obama era policy. With some restrictions DACA applies to youth under the age of 16 who were brought by their parents from another country and were living in the United States illegally on the 15th of June 2012. Once the approximately 1.7 million people who may qualify are “DACAmented” they are authorized to work in the United States and their deportation is deferred.
A little under 4% of the US population is undocumented (Pope, 2016). Thus, DACA is a big deal to a lot of people. The deportation deferment is valid for only two years, and then must be renewed, and the average DACA recipient has been in the United States for 15.5 years (Pope, 2016). It seems to me in general those who become DACAmented are very average students, they are not violent criminals or terrorize young children for fun, and they have the same stresses in life as you or me, except with the addition of being an illegal immigrant, a choice there parents made for them. As to getting rid of DACA, I wouldn’t choose to, but that is not how a republic works. Each of us should have voted for the presidential, senatorial, and congressional candidate that we believed would represent our interests the best. While I hope the judicial and legislative branches can someday work together and come up with a solution to this issue, I hope there is lots of good argument until that happens, so that opinions can be heard and the best options chosen.
Links:
Pope- The Effects of DACAmentation
Singer and Svajlenka- Immigration Facts: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
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