Rainbows, Promises, and DREAMERS
It is inhumane to abandon DREAMERS. Trump’s rollback of DACA is a humanitarian tragedy of epic proportion.
The beneficiaries of DACA are undocumented children who were brought into this country by undocumented parents. As a result of Barack Obama’s executive order in 2012, they were able to apply and be screened for work permits that enable them to continue to live and work in the only country they’ve ever known. This was a fair and reasonable accommodation that nonetheless SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEGISLATED BY CONGRESS.
We have a process for this. It’s called the “Legislative Branch.” I totally agree Congress should pass laws to perpetuate this program, so that the status of DREAMERS is not subject to the whims of presidents.
Unfortunately, our Legislative Branch has shown itself incapable of addressing our broken immigration system, hence Barack Obama acted via executive order AS A LAST RESORT, in the face of the moral failure of Congress to act.
While I decry Trump’s decision to cancel the DACA program by executive order, there is some ray of hope in his delay of cancellation by 6 months, specifically to give Congress time to enact proper and reasonable legislation to address this moral wrong. Let us hope our senators and representatives can finally set aside partisan interests and fix this. Our country has made promises to DREAMERS on which we MORALLY cannot renege.
Even though I applaud Trump’s willingness to give time for proper legislation, I am sickened by the reasoning given for ending the program, namely, it was a campaign promise to his base. He doesn’t want to break a campaign promise, but he has no trouble breaking the DACA promise? It’s hard to see that as anything other than self-serving. And what a sick group of people his base must be, to defend breaking promises of sanctuary and jobs and pathways to citizenship for decent, productive young people who have known no other life. What a sick group of Christians, one of whose leaders tweeted today, “#DACA is unconstitutional, American citizens should be 1st” (Pastor Mark Burns), who believe that constitutionality overrides the Biblical mandate to welcome and care for the stranger. What a spiritually diseased group of Christians it is who believe that American citizens come 1st, while the clear Biblical practice is for Christians to yield primacy of position to serve the vulnerable and oppressed. (See the Biblical mandate, “The first shall be last, and the last, first.”) This is shameful, and disgusting. Kyrie Eleison.