Should DACA Kids Be Deported?

Imagine a world where your native country turns into a place of warfare, political unjust, and what many would call a humanitarian crisis? Your family whisks you away on a journey you know nothing about, to a country you don't know anything about all for one dream- safety. To banish these children back to a country where they are as good as dead is not only selfish, morally irreprehensible, and unethical but ignoble of what the United States of America should represent- The American Dream.

  The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, otherwise known as DACA, advocates protecting immigrant youth from being deported out of the United States. According to What Is DACA And How Does it Affect New Yorkers, The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, established in 2012 by the Obama administration, gave work permits and temporary protection from deportation to illegal childhood immigrants. The Trump administration redacted the program in early 2017, which led to whether DACA kids should be victims of deportation? As stated in the article mentioned earlier, "The Trump administration rescinded the program in early September 2017, but delayed implementation for six months to encourage Congress to address the issue. Since then, there has been indication that a compromise between the President and Senate Democrats may allow parts of the provision to stay in place, but no agreement has been reached or approved". Controversial yet unsurprising that the United States of America would fail to make any plans that would promote the welfare of the unprotected immigrants in the United States. The Trump administration advocated for a harsher removal of Non-United States Citizens coming into the country, historically similar to the second president John Adams, concluding the same thoughts with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Both Presidents knew how non-united States Citizens affected them economically and politically, but should this be applied in the case of children?

The article What Is DACA And How Does It Affect New Yorkers, continues to talk about the struggles of America, particularly New Yorkers, if rapid deportation were to happen to Non-United States Citizens. The Trump administration advocated for a harsher removal of Non-United States Citizens because of the popular conservative belief that immigrants took most naturalized United States citizens' jobs. Yet, failed to see the risk of losing Non-United States citizens on the United States economic market in densely populated cities. The article concludes, "Immigrants as a group are critical to New York City's economy, comprising 46% of the workforce and a majority of small business owners, and contributing $8 billion in City and State personal income taxes and approximately $2 billion in City property taxes. While New York City-specific data on DACA is lacking, a nationwide analysis shows that 91% of recipients are working, and their average wages increased by 70% since the program began. The Center for American Progress estimates that if DACA is allowed to expire, the United States would stand to lose $460 billion in GDP – losses that would be felt most immediately in immigrant-dense cities such as New York". The conservative belief that Non- United States Citizens are taking up most of the jobs has no facts to prove it, but their economic contribution towards society has. The Trump administration championed bringing back big business and small business jobs into America for the disenfranchised. Yet, the removal of non-United States Citizens directly goes against that belief because immigrants of the United States who have become integral to our society will not only become disenfranchised but so would their contribution to society. Suppose The argument that Non-United States citizens affect the Trump administration negatively was valid; the data would signify that as well.

Politically speaking, the new arrival of different people in different aspects of wealth- typically low income, was not favorable to the Trump administration. The Non-United States Citizens, known as 'Dreamers,' wished for the intangible American Dream when illegally migrating to the United States. Going back to the previous claim that immigrants look for what they don't have in their native country towards the United States, their deportation should be unjust. Another article, known as Why Deporting 'Dreamers' Is Immoral, provides the ideology that children should not be subject to harsh punishment like many United States Laws. Children under the United States laws are not subject to the death penalty or any cruel treatment applied on the cases of adults. Yet, the removal of DACA makes these immigrant children subject to crueler treatments than juvenile detention or highway clean-up community service hours. The article states, "However, the Dreamers are not like other people. The simple fact of where they are now provides them with constitutional standing denied to outsiders. And, as emphasized earlier, whatever wrong they might have done in crossing into the United States, they did as children. The revocation of DACA, however, would announce that they are rightly subjected to a significant – indeed, a devastating – punishment, in virtue of an act committed in childhood". Personally, I never thought a child escaping the severe lack of freedoms of their native country made deportation a justifiable treatment. Throughout 2020 alone, Venezuela, Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, and many other countries suffered many humanitarian crises, leaving many people to flee their native countries. Being a child does not mean you should be able to escape the harsh consequences of a crime, but is it a crime to leave a country where the following death toll or candle lighting would be about or for you?

Others might suggest that a crime is a crime, and there is no way around that. The article, So Much for "No Path to Citizenship" For DACA DREAMers, crudely discusses that DACA provides safety to illegal immigrants, creating them immune to the penalties they "should" face. The article states, "If the rules are interpreted generously (and does anyone doubt that they will be?) those DREAMers who re-enter the country with advance parole may be transformed from illegal aliens with deferred action to "parolees" who are eligible for different treatment under the law. As parolees, they may be considered immune from the penalties for illegal presence that would otherwise prevent them from easily obtaining a green card. Specifically, those who have lived here illegally as adults for longer than six months are supposed to be barred from obtaining a green card for three years (or 10 years if the illegal stay was more than one year) if they depart from the United States. Most illegal aliens seeking green cards have to leave the country to be processed, so this part of the law has been an effective dragnet, if not an effective deterrent to illegal settlement (at least until the Obama administration created a loophole)". The argument is absurd because if the provisions DACA called for were enforced and used correctly, there would not be such an outrage to continue the fight for illegal immigrants to stay in the country. The argument that this grants a pardon to illegal immigrants for their crimes is only half true. Even to become a "parolee," an illegal immigrant would have to be deported out of the United States, which is not the goal. The goal is citizenship. In my opinion, the only crime concerning illegal immigrants is the lack of acceptable leeway to become United States citizens. The United States proves that acceptance is not tangible nor the American Dream.

I believe immigration is key to moving successfully towards higher tolerance, brighter futures, etc. The United States should never forget that their founding fathers and government framers were once illegal immigrants too. After all, NO ONE can be illegal on STOLEN LAND. 

Overall, the United States needs to get off its high horse and accept the formidable changes that need to happen in its government. There should be no question concerning the matters of deportation of DACA children or even adults. America needs to realize that it is usually their last choice of options when people flee, and no one ever wants to leave the country they love for a strange foreign land, children especially.