The DACA Program

Image from:  AMP∙ NBC News

By: Keisha Thompson – September 8^th, 2017

President Trump is adamant about terminating the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program. On September 5, 2017, the Trump Administration announced that Congress has six months to find a permanent solution or the President will put an end to the program. The DACA program ensures that young children brought to America illegally by their parents are given permission to work, study and to obtain a driver license. Along with other benefits, the 800,000 DACA recipients have an opportunity to change their status from illegal alien to permanent resident. The individuals in the 800,000 are from predominantly poor countries and they live all across America.

Illegal immigration is a controversial topic for people who are for and against illegal immigration. Any reasonable person can admit that no one wants individuals living in their country who are intent on destroying or interrupting their way of life as in the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. However,  ending the DACA program does nothing to ensure that terrorists will not attempt to attack Americans. The 800,000 individuals in the DACA program are in America due to no choice of their own. They are in America because their parent or parents made the decision for them to be here and for most of them, America is the only home they have ever known.

This decision is not about what is best for America, but rather another attempt from President Trump to erase everything Former President Obama accomplished. Trump boasts of his ability to make money and that he will grow the U.S. economy and yet he makes a decision that will cost America more than $400 billion according to CNBC.com. This does not include the actual cost of deporting 800,000 individuals to their port of origin. To President Trump’s bottom line of growing the U.S. economy, this is a serious loss.

Of all of the United States Presidents, Trump especially should understand better than any of the others what exactly is at stake in the battle of immigration. Trump is a product of immigrant parents. If his parents did not make the journey to America, he himself would not have had the opportunity to become a successful businessman and the chance of becoming President. It is a safe assumption that his parents wanted an opportunity to have a chance at a better life not only for themselves, but also for their children; and he, (of all their children) is benefitting the most from their struggles.

This decision can also be considered as another step for Trump to make America great again. However, what this decision also does is gives another glimpse into who exactly Trump is. Trump has no room for the people of color and the poor. In his vision, America has no room for any of the individuals who are struggling in other parts of World. Trump has forgotten that this Great America was founded by people who were running from religious persecution in England and various hardships in other countries. If not for immigration where would America be today? – Still inhabited exclusively by Native Americans?