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Citizenship for ‘Dreamers’? 6 essential readings on DACA and immigration reform
The American Dream and Promise Act, also known as Resolution 6 of the Chamber, would create a path to citizenship for immigrant ‘Dreamers’ – but it must first pass the Senate. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty ImagesThe United States could eventually grant citizenship to about 2.5 million undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children. The American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, which passed the Democratic-dominated House of Representatives on March 18, would give a group known as “Dreamers” permanent resident status for 10 years. They could then apply for naturalization as American citizens. Only nine House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, so in its current form it is unlikely to pass the Senate, which is divided equally between Democrats and Republicans. For more than a decade, all Congressional efforts to protect Dreamers have died in the Senate. In 2012, President Barack Obama bypassed Congress with an executive order to help this group of immigrants. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, granted the temporary right to live, study and work to some 800,000 undocumented immigrants aged 30 and under who came to the United States before the age of 16. President Donald Trump rescinded DACA in the fall of 2017, asking Congress to resolve the Dreamers ‘legal limbo by March 2018. Congress has passed no legislation to resolve the Dreamers’ status; the American Dream and Promise Act is an effort to try this. Here are some important background and expert analysis of the “Dreamers” and DACA as the debate progresses to the Senate. 1. DACA Results Researchers who evaluated DACA found that the program benefited both Dreamers and the United States. Wayne Cornelius, professor emeritus of US-Mexico relations at the University of California, San Diego, led a research team that interviewed dozens of DACA beneficiaries in 2014. He found that work permits allowed them to get better paid jobs. “This made the college more accessible and increased its tax contributions. DACA [also encouraged] for them to invest more in their education because they knew that a legal job would be available when they completed their studies, ”wrote Cornelius in 2017. A survey conducted earlier that year with some 3,000 DACA beneficiaries found that 97% were employed or enrolled in school, and many started their own businesses. Young immigrants line up to apply for DACA on August 15, 2012 in Los Angeles. Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images But DACA had “significant limitations”, according to Cornelius. Since their work permit needed to be renewed every two years, for example, some employers were reluctant to hire Dreamers. 2. Undocumented stress Still, the survey revealed that DACA allowed beneficiaries to “continue their education and get jobs and health insurance,” wrote migration experts Elizabeth Aranda and Elizabeth Vaquera in September 2017. The program gave Dreamers “Peace of mind – something that, until then, was not familiar to them. ”3. DACA and the wall Almost 80% of DACA recipients came from Mexico. So when the Trump administration in September 2017 set DACA protections to expire in six months, the decision affected Mexico as well. “The end of DACA exposes 618,342 undocumented Mexican youths” to deportation, wrote political scientist Luis Gómez Romero. Gómez Romero said the DACA decision can be read as “a power game in Trump’s ongoing battle with the government of Mexico” for his refusal to pay for a border wall. 4. Congressional battles In early 2018, with DACA about to expire, Congress was in a “fight for a solution”, according to Kevin Johnson, Dean and professor of studies at Chicana / o at the University of California, Davis . That month, a clash in Congress over the Dreamers closed the federal government for 69 hours. Although “some conservatives have rejected the idea of giving ‘amnesty’ to any lawbreaker,” he wrote, some progressives found DACA too restricted. According to the Migration Policy Initiative, DACA excluded nearly 1 million unauthorized immigrants who met most of the DACA criteria, but did not complete their education, committed a crime or feared applying for DACA due to fear of that their undocumented parents could be deported. Trump returned to the fray in January 2018 with a proposed path to legalize 1.8 million Dreamers. The compensation for siding with the Democrats: Congress had to finance its US-Mexico border wall. This proposal also failed. 5. Supreme Court Decisions The situation of the Dreamers has forced the Supreme Court to become involved on several occasions. In 2017, the court issued an injunction on the termination of the Trump program, allowing DACA recipients to renew their protected status for another two-year period, while other lawsuits continued. In June 2020, the court ruled that the Trump administration could not really dismantle the DACA because it had not provided adequate justification for doing so. The Dreamers celebrate the Supreme Court’s DACA decision on June 18, 2020. Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images This gave the Dreamers another respite, but the DACA remained in danger because the 2020 decision “was not about whether the president of the United States has the authority to terminate DACA, ”wrote University of Massachusetts political scientist Morgan Marietta, Lowell. “All parties involved agreed that it was.” The case only confirmed that a president cannot lie on the basis of his executive orders. The judges’ narrow decision left open “the possibility that the government will try to terminate DACA at a later date,” wrote Marietta. 6. Biden and immigration reform The election of Joe Biden prevented this. His government is pressing Congress to undertake comprehensive immigration reform that would create paths for citizenship not only for Dreamers, but also for other undocumented immigrants, including rural workers. Any immigration reform must face a series of new challenges created in the past four years, according to Miranda Cady Hallett, a Central American immigration expert at the University of Dayton. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.] Trump made more than 400 changes in immigration policy, by Hallett’s count, including a ban on immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries and the separation of families on the border. Although many presidents deported large numbers of undocumented migrants, Trump’s immigration was “more random and punitive,” writes Hallett. It is “increasing enormously[ed] criminal prosecutions for crimes related to immigration and removal[ed] people who have been in the USA for longer. ”This includes the Dreamers. After a decade of legal battles and political threats, Dreamers are not so young anymore. Many in the original 800,000 group are reaching 40. This article has been republished from The Conversation, a non-profit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Read more: Biden’s immigration review would bring families divided by deportation Jesus, Paul and the border debate – why choosing Bible passages loses immigrant experience in ancient Rome