The Trump administration last week made it easier to deport illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States when they were children. That’s part of a broader effort that could send roughly 500,000 “dreamers” back into the shadows.
For years, these immigrants have been protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which once enjoyed widespread bipartisan support. That’s because lawmakers from both parties understood that these young people are assets to the economy. DACA allowed them to go to college and pursue careers that might lead them to permanent legal status.
That consensus is gone. During President Donald Trump’s first term, officials attempted to scrap the program entirely but were blocked in court. This time around, they are urging DACA recipients to self-deport and warning that they can lose their status at any time if they are arrested or commit a crime.
Last week, the Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative court within the Justice Department, went much further. It found that an immigration judge “erred” in using the DACA status of Catalina “Xóchitl” Santiago, a prominent activist, as the sole reason to terminate her removal proceedings.
While the decision does not necessarily mean that Santiago will be deported, the new precedent is an ominous sign for the more than half a million people who are allowed to legally work and live in the country as a result of DACA.
Meanwhile, the administration keeps trying to make life harder for DACA recipients, even though many have never known any other country as home. It stripped them of their eligibility to purchase health insurance from Affordable Care Act exchanges and opened investigations into five universities for offering scholarships to students in the program.
The Justice Department has also been teaming up with Republican state attorneys general to overturn laws allowing immigrants without legal status to attend public universities at in-state tuition rates.
Last week, Nebraska entered into an agreement with the government ending the practice, dramatically raising costs for illegal immigrants in the state. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for instance, charges more than $30,000 to out-of-state students, about three times the rate for in-state residents.
That follows similar agreements in Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia, all based upon the absurd legal theory that lower tuition rates for immigrant students discriminate against U.S. citizens.
Yet these students’ families have typically lived in their state for years, paying taxes and contributing to their communities.
That’s ultimately why the DACA program has long been so popular. Most Americans see immigrants not as criminal monsters, but as neighbors, friends and co-workers. Extinguishing the American Dream for this group is wrong.
— The Washington Post
