By Starla Simms January 20, 2019
Imagine finally being old enough to get a part-time after-school job, or to get your driver’s license, and being told by your parents that you can’t because you are not a US citizen, and they’ve been concealing this fact from you for your whole life. On top of that, you don’t even speak Spanish. It sounds like something out of an outlandish movie plot, but the truth is this is exactly what happened to many people who qualify for DACA.
Think about how terrified you’d be if you learned you were at risk of losing everything you’ve ever known, including the country you believed was your own, and being separated from your family. Now imagine how much more horrific this nightmare scenario would become if you learned your fate was in the hands of Democrat obstructionists like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. ¡Ay caramba!
The compromise President Trump detailed this weekend is everything a proposal should be: bipartisan, constructive, common-sense, and beneficial to the citizens he is duty-bound to protect. On top of that, it is also beneficial to the non-citizens who qualify for permanent residency through DACA.
To qualify for the program applicants must prove they have been living in the US for over five years and that they were under the age of 16 when they were brought to the country. Upon meeting these conditions, they would then be permitted to work or study in the US or to join our military for a protected six-year period. During this period, they would not qualify for Federal student grants, but they would be eligible to receive student loans. Applicants who are found to have criminal records are barred.
In a statement that sent a powerful message about his willingness to compromise and move forward for the greater good of the country, this Saturday President Trump offered to extend this protected status to the Dreamers for an additional three years. During this time DACA recipients could do much to prove they deserve to be here. They can earn degrees and pay taxes and give back to the country. Who would want to take this opportunity away from them?
You’re looking at them.
Unlike the Democrat-controlled Congress, President Trump is willing to make a deal that will benefit everyone. Because he’s a businessman and not a career politician with a financial stake in maintaining the status quo, he’s willing to compromise by accepting partial border wall funding in exchange for allocating funding toward issues that will be in the best interests of the people the Democrats claim to care about more than anyone else in the country, including veterans: undocumented immigrants.
Trump’s compromise includes:
- Three years of protection for dreamers
- Three-year extension for the 300,000 immigrants in the US under Temporary Protected Status
- $5.7 billion to build the wall in key areas where it is most urgently needed
- $800 million in urgent humanitarian assistance funds
- $805 million for advanced drug detection technology
- $782 million for additional border agents and other law enforcement
- $563 million for the immigrant court system, which will receive 75 new judge teams to help process cases faster and more efficiently
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as of August 2018 there were 699,350 active DACA recipients. While estimates vary widely when it comes to the true number of undocumented immigrants currently residing in the US, a 2016 study by the Pew Research Center placed the figure at 10.7 million. In other words, approximately 6.5 percent of undocumented immigrants could benefit from DACA. Due to the program’s own qualification rules, no new immigrants would qualify beyond this figure, as the time frame makes the current number finite. By comparison, President Trump’s border wall compromise of $5.7 is a mere 0.13 percent of the $4.5 trillion 2019 projected budget.
The crisis at the border and the broken immigration system harms Americans and illegal immigrants, and it has to stop. The way the system is now, financial incentives, the lottery, and chain migration encourage immigrants to come here illegally, putting both themselves and their children at risk. Someone has to be willing to set the obstructionism aside and put the people first, and it’s sure not going to be crooked, self-serving Schumer and Pelosi.
President Trump's Latino approval numbers are up by 19%. Once voters in this demographic see who is really willing to go to bat for them, we can expect this figure to continue to climb. We the People see through these racist hypocrites in Washington and their ridiculous game-playing and we support President Trump if he is forced to declare a national emergency.
Will Democrats approve the President’s proposal when the bill is brought up next week? Sorry, Dreamers, but you really are dreaming if you think the Democrats are going to do anything for you. They don't care about illegal immigrants. They don't care about the 800,000 furloughed government workers. They don't care about the people being affected by crime near the border. They only care about themselves, and they prove it every chance they get.
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