The ending of DACA is a historical moment in the US which is causing the two political parties to rage war. Trump ended the DACA program which his conservatives’ partners praised him for since he based most of his campaign on immigration. It took him a while to do this even though he pledged to do so at the beginning of his presidential reign. The ending of DACA was coming at some time, which I have a mixed view about. In many ways it could be negative, but we need to look at what we can do to help our students first, not immigrant students. American students are at a disadvantage since we cater to the immigrants and not our own. In order for this country to keep growing, we must educate our citizens first and make the priority above the illegal immigrants.
It seems inhumane for rejecting immigrants that were already in America, but how do you think the average hard working American kid feels when they can not get a scholarship or the same education as an illegal immigrant? Republicans sped up the process of ending DACA since “nine Republicans state attorneys general had threatened to sue to halt the program immediately if Mr. Trump did not act” (NY Times). Republicans were furious about the DACA program that Obama enacted which Trump said it led to a ‘“massive surge” of immigrants from Central America, some of whom went on to to become members of violent gangs like MS-13′”(NY Times). The Republicans see this as the first step in Immigration Reform and ending the influx of undocumented children in to this country.
While ending DACA right now is the smart thing, people who have DACA can renew their permits if it expires in the next six months. Trump told reporters, “he feels compassion for those affected, but ‘long term it’s going to be the right solution” (CNN) which is ironic of him to say since he pushed deporting immigrants so hard during his campaign. He might have ended people from being able to become a DACA recipient, but he gave Congress six months to try to fix DACA and is even setting up meeting with Democrats as well about this issue.
This controversial decision to end DACA has more than to do with just education and immigration, but also with peoples’ views especially the view of anti-immigration. For the Republicans, this is a win for them by ending a form immigration, but on the other hand, the democrats feel that this is the most inhumane thing ever. We must look at this from both sides along with the positives and negatives. We do not really know the negative affects, yet besides the fact we are denying people an education, which we promised them. The one positive is less immigration for six months while DACA is suspended. We do not fully know what this could to the economy in the future, or how much money it will cost to deport all of these people on DACA. This is a battle over political views and beliefs, and it is the morally right thing to do.
I personally do not know if this a good or bad thing completely, yet. I think that we should try to fix it, but at the same time, we must focus on our citizens first. We push our citizens away sometimes and do not take care of them enough. The Washington Post explains that Trump was for the Dreamers and praised them, but then all of sudden, he is against them. He tweeted, “Make no mistake, we are going to put the interest of AMERICAN CITIZENS FIRST! The forgotten men & women will no longer be forgotten” (Washington Post), which contradicts things he had said previously. I agree with him that we must take care of our citizens first, but what is he going to do to help us more. I am not sure if he even believes in this decision or if he is just doing this to get the Republicans praise back. Either way the DACA program is just a platform the two political parties use to fight over their drastic views over immigration.
21st Century Citizenship 