DACA: The Issue Keeping Congress from Passing a Budget
In 6 days, the US Congress will need to come up with another solution to spending legislation. To learn more about the key issue holding up spending legislation, read below!
What does DACA mean?
- DACA is short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
What protections do DACA recipients receive?
- Recipients are temporarily able to work, study, and live in the US.
- What that means is…They are eligible to receive a license to drive, work permit, and can enroll in school.
What criteria needed to be met to receive DACA protections?
- Applicants needed to be under 31 when the program was initiated in June 2012.
- Applicants needed to be brought to the US before they turned 16 and have lived in the US continuously since 2007.
- Applicants must have been students or have completed school or military service.
What is the process of accepting applicants?
- Applicants were vetted for any criminal history or threat to national security. If they passed these checks, they are given the protections.
How did the program come to be?
- President Obama began the program in 2012 without legislation passed by Congress.
Could President Obama do that?
- The Trump Administration and a group of Attorney Generals from conservative states think not.
So, is that why the Trump Administration ended the program?
- The Trump Administration did not have to give explicit details as to why they stopped accepting applications for the program, but it is thought they ended the program because a group of conservative Attorney Generals said they would challenge the program on constitutional grounds in court. As Trump is the current president, his administration would need to defend the program in court, and they thought it was an overreach of Presidential power, so rather than risk having to defend it, they abolished the program.
What happens to the people that already applied?
- The protects last for two years (deferred action–they do not get deported immediately). Once their status expires, they would need to reapply and go through the process again. Without being able to reapply, they will lose the protections they had under the program.
How many people are protected under DACA currently?
- About 690,000 people have DACA protections.
- The Trump Administration gave people whose status was going to expire before March 5th the opportunity to apply for an extension of two more years.
- If an agreement is not reached to provide protections to this group of people, by the end of June, 147,000 people will lose their protections.
Who is saying what about DACA?
- Republicans: Do not agree on how to handle DACA recipients. Therefore, to pass legislation that protects the Dreamers, Republicans need Democratic support.
- Far right Republicans do not want the Dreamers to have any protections, moderate Republicans, and members of Republican Congressional leadership have called for leniency (including House Speaker Paul Ryan).
- Democrats: Have a range of things they would see as acceptable, but ideally want the Dreamers to be given a path to citizenship.
- They would likely support a program like DACA, but this would not be their ideal solution.
- Trump: He has gone back and forth on the issue. At first, he said he did not want the Dreamers to have any protections, then he said he will come up with a solution, and now he said he will only sign a bill on the Dreamers that also includes money for his border wall (which the Democrats really don’t think is effective, and do not want it).
Arguments on each side?
- Moderate Republicans: There should be a similar program implemented. These people only know the US as their home and have contributed to the country. They should not have to leave, but they should not necessarily become citizens.
- Far right Republicans: Nope. It was an unconstitutional use of Presidential power. These people are illegal immigrants and should be treated as any other illegal immigrant.
- Democrats: These people have contributed to the economy, have served in the military, and have lived here for their entire lives. They had no choice in whether to come to the US, so they should not be punished for the decisions of the adults around them. They should be given a path to citizenship, because this is their home.
- Trump: The program was an unconstitutional use of Presidential power. It had to go because the Administration could not defend it in court.
Sources Consulted:
Bier, David. “How DACA Will End: A Timeline of Expiration.” Cato Institute, 21 Dec. 2016, http://www.cato.org/blog/how-daca-will-end-timeline-expiration.
Lind, Dara. “Republicans Are Misleading Everyone.” Vox, Vox, 20 Dec. 2017, http://www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16795300/daca-deadline-extend-trump.
Shoichet, Catherine E., and Tal Kopan. “DACA, Dreamers Explained.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Oct. 2017, edition.cnn.com/2017/09/04/politics/daca-dreamers-immigration-program/index.html.
Walters, Joanna. “What Is Daca and Who Are the Dreamers?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Sept. 2017, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/donald-trump-what-is-daca-dreamers.
“What Is DACA and Why Is the Trump Administration Ending It?” Fox News, FOX News
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