Pass the Dream Act now
Fixing our immigration system will take time. A path to citizenship for the Dreamers is a good way to begin.
On November 9, nearly 1,000 high school and college students descended on Washington, D.C., to demand that Congress act this year to protect the 800,000 young immigrants who have been shielded from deportation by an Obama-era executive order referred to as DACA. The DACA order gave these “Dreamers”—people who were brought to this country as children—the legal status to pursue an education and a career.
When President Trump announced that he was canceling DACA, effective in 2018, he promised that there would be a legislative fix for the Dreamers. These immigrants have used Obama’s 2012 order to move forward with their lives and become students, employees, business owners, and parents (of children who are U.S. citizens). They and their families, their employers, and their teachers await that legislative solution. But time is running out.
There’s already a bipartisan consensus that the Dreamers should have legal status. Polls show that a majority in both political parties think the Dreamers should be allowed to stay in the country. Yet, as has happened repeatedly since the DREAM Act was first proposed 16 years ago, Dreamers may end up as pawns in a political game. Legislation to resolve their status may not even come to a vote.
