Dreamers deserve better than Trump and Sessions

Immigration attorney Oscar Barbosa councils a Dreamer during a DACA information session in Hightstown in 2012.

And so the count down begins.

After seven-and-a-half months in office, President Donald Trump has moved to keep one of his more inhumane campaign promises, announcing that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would be phased out starting in six months.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the announcement about the program, which was created by an Obama executive order in 2012 and granted temporary protection from deportation to about 800,000 immigrants who came as children.

The group, generally called Dreamers after long-sought legislation that would have created a pathway to fully legal status and possibly citizenship, has been in limbo since the election. During the transition, Trump seemed to soften his anti-DACA stance, saying he would “work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud.”

“They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

But Trump’s solution, announced today by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, leaves Dreamers in “never-never land” by ending protections and asking a dysfunctional Congress to act. DACA protections, two-year deferrals of immigration enforcement and a work authorization permit, will begin expiring with all deferrals expected to run out in 2020. No renewal applications will be accepted, nor will new applications for protection.

Sessions, in his announcement, said DACA “was implemented unilaterally to great controversy and legal concern after Congress rejected legislative proposals to extend similar benefits on numerous occasions to this same group of illegal aliens.” This, Sessions said, amounted to “an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws” and “an unconstitutional exercise of authority by the Executive Branch.”

Sessions also blamed what he called “a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border” on DACA, conveniently ignoring the brutal conditions across Central America that were driving these kids north.

So DACA’s authorization is being revoked and the program will go through an “orderly process” as it winds down. All of this sounds good — until you factor in the 800,000 or so immigrants who are in limbo, immigrants wo are working and/or going to school, creating better lives not only for themselves and their families, but for their communities.

I talked with Daniela Velez, director of undocuJersey, an advocacy group. Velez came to the United States when she was 9 from Venezuela to escape the political turmoil that occurred as Hugo Chavez assumed power. That was 2002. She has been in the state’s since, graduating from the Burlington County Institute of Technology and Rowan College at Burlington County. She is starting at Rutgers this fall.

She said the feeling in the Dreamer community can be summed up by a single word: “Anxiety.”

“It is a word best to describe the situation, she said. “Basically, it means students, workers, families, parents, community supporters organizing and finding new solutions.”

What happens next, she said, is hard to know.

“What does it mean?” She asked. “Does it mean going back under cover? Does it mean relocating, We gave our information to the government (when we enrolled in DACA). Does it mean you disappear so they don’t come for you?”

As The Daily Beast reports, the administration “may use the information these people gave the government as a means of gaining temporary protection to, instead, find and deport them.”

In a memo, the Department of Homeland Security answered this question. And its statement – full of wordy legalese – made clear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be able to use DACA recipients’ personal information to deport them.

“Information provided to USCIS in DACA requests will not be proactively provided to ICE and CBP for the purpose of immigration enforcement proceedings, unless the requestor meets the criteria for the issuance of a Notice To Appear or a referral to ICE under the criteria set forth in USCIS’ Notice to Appear guidance,” said the statement.

In other words, USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency which handles DACA) won’t proactively give immigration enforcement officers a list with the names and addresses of all DACA recipients. But if ICE officers ask for it, the agency will provide it.

“They’re saying we will not give your information unless ICE tells USCIS they need it to deport you, which basically means we’ll give your information out whenever ICE says it’s necessary to deport you,” said Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney who represents many DACA recipients. “That’s the point.”

So, the information is in play — given ICE’s history and Trump’s take-off-the-gloves attitude. And that has Dreamers mad.

“We came out of the shadows,” Velez said. “We told the government we are here. We are working. We want to succeed. We want to give back to this country. We are visible. We came out did. We did everything required and now that can be used against us.”

On a personal level, Velez was concerned about her work authorization. If she can’t work, she will not be able to attend school.

“I worked to pay for school,” she said. “If ends, does it mean I take leave of absence from Rutgers, do I drop out? Does it mean I go to working cash? For me, my world will end.”

With today’s announcement, it is likely her work authorization and deferred status will end later this year — it is set to expire, though she has applied for a two-year extension. Her sister’s DACA status runs out next year.

Advocates point to stories like Velez’s and others as evidence of the heartlessness of Trump’s action.

But Trump continues to claim “a ‘great love’ for the young immigrants protected by the DACA program.” As the Associated Press reported, he told “a meeting with administration officials and congressional leaders Tuesday, (that) he has a ‘great heart’ for the young people. He says he hopes ‘Congress will be able to help them and do it properly.'”

Given the make-up of both houses of Congress, the likelihood of a DACA-like program being created seems slim. Congress is controlled by Republicans, a party that itself is controlled by anti-immigration hard-liners. And even if immigration-reformers can peel away so-called moderates, it has to worry that conservative Democrats do not side with hard-line Republicans. And that assumes that Democrats will even be willing to discuss legislation that might give Trump a perceived win.

Members of Congress are saying the right things — even many Republicans — so there is hope, however small.

So, as Velez points out. It’s time to get busy and organize.

* * *

Much of Sessions’ announcement was boilerplate stuff — except that he raised the specter of an out-of-control executive violating the rule of law, not realizing perhaps that he was describing conditions put in place primarily by Republicans in recent years, and that very much describes the know-nothingism and kleptocratic instincts of his boss, the current president of the United States: “Societies where the rule of law is subject to political whims and personal biases tend to become societies afflicted by corruption, poverty, and human suffering.”

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

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