The Trump administration has expressed a desire to kick out 800,000 young, tax-paying professionals, army members, and college students with a 91% employment rate and no felonies or misdemeanors by rescinding DACA, to fulfill a racist utopia. To kick out young adults who had no jurisdiction over coming here. While ignoring the facts: DACA has not been ruled unconstitutional by any courts, there’s zero correlation between illegal immigrants and surging crime, and the Dreamers provide an economic boost to a market already at full employment all while not being eligible for welfare or student aid. There’s clearly no plausible reason to end DACA in the name of national or economic security. But it’s easy to see why President “fine people on both sides” might want to do so after years of degrading, heinous, and slanderous language directed towards Latinos.
The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program allowed for people brought here illegally as children to receive a renewable two-year deference from deportation and obtain a work permit. 800,000 Dreamers. It was the culmination of 15 years of legal limbo after the 2001 DREAM Act – aiming to provide a path to full citizenship for those brought to the US illegally as children – failed to pass in the 2007 House. Then years later, failed to pass in the 2010 Senate. The executive action did not provide amnesty, immunity, or even a path to citizenship – yet Trump has launched an attack against it fueled solely by blatant xenophobic falsehoods reminiscent of 1940s Germany propaganda.
Dreamers – The Model Minority (by Requirement)
They are children who had no jurisdiction over their parents’ actions. They did not break the law. They must have been younger than 31 on June 15, 2012, and come when they were younger than 16, living here since 2007. In fact, 80% of Dreamers arrived when they were less than 10 years old.
Immigration-status aside, they are law-abiding inhabitants. To be eligible to the status, they must not have “convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor or three other misdemeanors, or otherwise pose a threat to national security.”
Much of the fear-mongering and sensationalist debate on the right stems from the belief that all immigrants are bringing a crime wave when there is no data showing such a correlation.
Illegal immigrants do not increase crime.
Data only shows the opposite despite Sessions’ claims that it “contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences.”:
Illegal immigrants overall, do not reside in the US illegally because they are criminals in fear of vetting, they have been vetted – an estimated 66% overstay Visas. (Which to be technical, is not a criminal offense.) Contrary to popular belief, there’s also no path to citizenship much less a “line.”
Illegal immigrants have lower incarceration rates and crime rates than native-born Americans and native-White Americans. So people fleeing violence from economically stagnant countries actually come to the US in search of a better life for their families – shocking!
Illegal immigrants are 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than natives.
Accordingly, “1.53 percent of all native-born adults (18-54) are incarcerated, compared with 0.85 percent of illegal immigrants in the same age range – including those incarcerated for immigration crimes and in immigration detention.” That number drops to 0.50 percent when excluding them. Furthermore, White, native-born Americans are incarcerated at a rate of 0.90 percent, illegal immigrants of every race and ethnicity are still less likely to be incarcerated, at a rate of 0.85 percent. Additionally, American cities with more illegal immigrants do not have a higher crime rate.
Constitutionality of DACA
Like any good propaganda minister, the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions, used a series of easily fact-checkable lies about DACA to justify rescinding it.
First and foremost, it is not “unilateral executive amnesty,” it does not provide amnesty or even a path to citizenship. “Immigration amnesty is a blanket pardon to all the members of a defined class, such as the kind Ronald Reagan introduced in 1986. “
He went on the say that DACA was an “unconstitutional exercise of authority.” That is another brazen lie. Arguments that it’s not constitutional are based on the United States v. Texas ruling on the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, not DACA. To which the court split its decision.
Although over 100 law school professors proclaim that it’s a “lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” no court ruling on the constitutionality of the program has been issued on the matter. Presenting such a statement as fact shows that the real fake-news is coming from inside the (White) House.
They do not “steal jobs,” they drive economic growth.
Sessions has claimed that DACA, “denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those jobs to go to illegal aliens.”
There is again zero evidence pointing to that. And such a viewpoint shows a lack of basic economic literacy.
Nevermind that we are already at “full employment with more job openings than at any point in history.” The idea that there is a fixed amount of jobs available falls under the “lump of labor fallacy.” As population increases so does total employment; foreign workers do not crowd-out employment.
They aren’t taking anyone’s jobs away. The US economy is actually seeking 6.2 million jobs at a time when general unemployment is at a 16-year low, which is even lower among college-educated. The majority of Dreamers are students, 17 percent pursue an advanced degree., and they tend to be employed in higher-skilled jobs. Among this college educated group the market is higher than full employment, so the talking-point that low-skilled white and black workers are being squeezed out of an economy higher than full-employment is yet another lie. They idea that unemployed native-born Americans are substitutes for these highly-skilled jobs is xenophobic propaganda.
We are at full employment and no one is being squeezed out of the job-market much less competing with 800,000 highly-skilled and educated Dreamers in it.
DACA recipients actually fuel economic growth according to a myriad of studies. Again, this is essentially because high-skilled immigration does not crowd-out low-skilled native-workers nor compete with them, but only create new jobs and spending with their skills and education. In fact, within 5 years, ,GDP would shrink by $105 billion without DACA recipients. And by shrink by $380 billion without undocumented immigrants. Immigrants are also twice as likely than native-born Americans to start businesses.
Evidently, there’s no plausible reason to end DACA in the name of national or economic security. Congress must stand up to protect these 800,000 young, tax-paying professionals, army members, and college students. They must protect these young adults with a 91% employment rate and no felonies or misdemeanor who had no jurisdiction over coming here.
Congress must accept the facts: DACA has not been ruled unconstitutional by any courts it’s actually a lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion. (It was not amnesty like Reagan’s policy.) Recipients had no jurisdiction over breaking the law, and they are mandated to be law-abiding inhabitants for the status and pose zero threat to national security. Illegal immigrants overall have lower crime and incarceration rates than native-born Americans (1.53 to 0.85%.)
Dreamers provide an economic boost to a market already at full employment all while not being eligible for welfare or student aid. The number of US jobs are not fixed because as population increases so does employment (see the lump of labor fallacy.) Therefore, foreign workers overall do not crowd-out employment much less at a time when the US economy is at full employment seeking 6.2 million jobs (highest since 2001), much less within the majority student and highly skilled Dreamer population where the market is higher than full employment. (Those economically anxious unemployed Americans and coal-miners are not competing with 800,000 highly-skilled and educated young people.)
This is a bipartisan issue worth fighting for. Supporting the protection of these exemplary young people who had no jurisdiction over coming here does not mean being for open borders or amnesty. It means having the basic human decency and logic to do what is both morally and economically right.
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