(TruthandLiberty.com) – Originally enacted by President Barack Obama in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was meant as a way to protect undocumented people who came to the US as minors from being deported. It allowed them to obtain a Green Card and opened up access to college and career opportunities. While controversial, it was seen as a temporary measure — put in place until Congress could enact immigration and citizenship reforms. That never happened.
DACA Explained
DACA is a protection act that allows people that came to the United States as minors with “Undocumented” parents to petition for “relief from removal.” If approved, children, and sometimes parents, may avoid deportation if certain conditions are met.
Proponents of DACA believe it to be a sort of protection against unjust removal of the downtrodden. They claim it’s essentially a legal declaration of “Give me your tired, your weary, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Not everyone agrees with that sentiment.
Commentator Steven Crowder believes that, on one side, it could be an incredibly humanitarian idea designed to protect peaceful people contributing to this great American Republic. However, he also cautions of the risk for it to become a Trojan Horse of encroachment, conflation, and legal circumvention which could undermine naturalized peoples in the US. Encroachment, here, comes in the form of legal expansions, orders, intentions, and memorandums on who actually falls under the provisions of DACA.
The White House administration published a memorandum on January 20th, 2021, touting its support for Obama’s prior DACA guidelines. The former president incidentally sought to expand DACA to Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), as reported in the NY Times.
The Real Impact of DACA
Does DACA really create a path for undermining existing liberty and legal immigration standards? Are lawmakers allowing encroachment that erodes legal protection? Or, does DACA make an already deeply compassionate nation stronger? Whether it becomes a poison pill or empathetic expansion depends on many factors.
Maybe the answer lies in the fact that the United States took in over 800,000 newly naturalized citizens in 2019 without DACA. This raises the question of whether its existence might undermine those hundreds of thousands of people and their citizenship each year, mocking their incredible sacrifice and commitment.
There are also concerns about whether DACA guidelines make a sort of “end run” around some of our most important post-9/11 protection laws.
Still, some believe DACA is essential for its ability to “fast-track” citizenship, especially for young people living in the US who came here under no fault of their own. Some of these people are, in fact, already contributing members of our society.
Whatever the answer to the issue of DACA, it remains a significant part of our national discourse. However, the answer should come in the form of Congressional legislation and not from the executive branch of government.
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