The recipients of DACA are young people who have grown up as Americans, identify themselves as Americans, and many speak only English and have no memory of or connection with the country where they were born. Under current immigration law, most of these young people had no way to gain legal residency even though they have lived in the U.S. most of their lives.
Many DREAMers say they didn’t know they were unauthorized immigrants until they were teenagers—often when they discovered they couldn’t join their peers in getting a driver’s license or filling out financial aid forms for college because they didn’t have Social Security numbers. The DREAM Act would have provided a pathway to U.S. citizenship to certain undocumented youth who go to college and/or serve in the military while maintaining a good record.
DACA enables certain people who came to the U.S. as children and meet several key guidelines to request consideration for deferred action. It allows non-U.S. citizens who qualify to remain in the country for two years, subject to renewal. Recipients are eligible for work authorization and other benefits, and are shielded from deportation. The fee to request DACA is $495 every two years.
Since DACA began, 787,580 people have been approved for the program. To be eligible, applicants had to have arrived in the U.S. before age 16 and lived here since June 15, 2007. They could not have been older than 30 when the Department of Homeland Security enacted the policy in 2012. DACA applicants have to provide evidence they were living in the U.S. at the prescribed times, proof of education and confirmation of their identities. They also had to pass background, fingerprint and other biometric checks that record identifying biological features.
DACA is largely seen as successful and has assisted young people in a variety of ways. A 2017 national study revealed that 91% of DACA respondents are currently employed. Their average hourly wage is $17.46 an hour, up from $10.29 before receiving DACA. Forty-five percent of respondents are currently in school and among those currently in school, 72% are pursuing a bachelor’s degree or higher. Nearly 80% of respondents said they obtained driver's licenses, which is also a public safety improvement for all people.
DACA recipients include doctors, nurses, grocery store workers, child care providers, cleaners, business owners, restaurant workers, and first responders. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that these positions are an essential part of our workforce. DACA recipients make up 200,000 essential workers, including 27,000 healthcare workers, on the front lines in the fight against this virus. That is why additional papers were recently filed in the Supreme Court case, warning of the risk to public health if DACA recipients were suddenly open to deportation in the middle of a pandemic.
DACA compared to this excerpt from Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus”
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Its weird that even though these people have lived in America all their lives , they werent able to reside here legally .
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Yamile Rene- I realized that the people who have no memory or connections with the country they were born from have no sense of nationalism.
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So immigrants that bring their child to us at a very young age and were raised in the american estate learning English and enrolling school have a protection from being deported because this is their home country in their eyes .
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My concern is to immigrants who came here to this country that work hard to support their families and are not getting the true benefits they deserve. Some immigrants have been in America for almost their whole life and should get good opportunities for themselves. There is always some challenge holding them back or not getting the proper legal documents to help them.
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Yamile Rene- Why can’t a legal resident claim their residency even tho they’ve lived longer in America than some people?
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I have realized that even if a child was raised in America, speaks English, and identifies as American, they are/were unable to live successfully as an American because they don’t/didn’t have SSN or a driver’s license.
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Why would the citizenship have only been provided to undocumented people who were in college or served in the military ? Why not all people who maintain a good record ?
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Granting the dreamers grant what happens if they don’t want to college or enroll in the military , how else are they able to stay and are they still eligible for the grant any other way.
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Why does DACA only apply to young people and not families with younger children? Isn’t splitting up a family and leaving young children in America in the foster care system worse than illegal immigrants who only want better lives for their families?
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What happens after the two years is there any way for them to get a legal american citizenship .
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There are so many requirements to be approved . This makes me wonder if people have tried to fake or forge any documents just to get approval .
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if so has there been any changes to the appilications
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I wonder why there is a year limit and age?. Why do people have to have arrive before the age sixteen and have to had lived in America since June 15,2007?. What happens to people who didn’t do that?.
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Does the DACA apply to younger children who are unable to work yet? If so, what happens to the children; where do they go?
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Going through this pandemic with COVID-19, many positions had been put in danger of being lost. This is a risk to many immigrants who have chances of being deporting which is probably why there is more documents to sign and more pressure being added.
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I think that it may have came down to your lineage in that your family was already here so tracing it back i think would be hard.
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So from the first sentence it seems like when you get DACA you lose all you personal connections with the country you are originally born in
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One concern I have would be for people would be that during covid, people would not be able to get their documentation
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