To this group of more than half a million Dreamers, promises of legalizing their status are made when it’s politically convenient. But then they are forgotten. (Instagram)
Is this a joke? Many of these hundreds of thousands of undocumented young people who came to this country in their childhood might ask themselves.
No one asked them if they wanted to come. No one told them they would be rejected by institutions and society due to their lack of immigration status. They are not to blame. On the contrary, they are part of a migratory phenomenon that has existed and will continue to exist in U.S. history. They are the children of migrants who have managed to bring their families to this country and contribute with their labor—the very work many American citizens avoid doing.
However, despite not meeting immigration requirements and having to work one, two, or three jobs, a significant number of these young people have made it to university—excellent students with a bright future, if only politicians didn’t treat them as disposable rhetoric.
To this group of more than half a million Dreamers, promises of legalizing their status are made when it’s politically convenient. But then they are forgotten.
Since the start of the DACA program under President Barack Obama’s administration, there have been court battles, debates in Congress and the Senate, and discussions in other spheres. Obama did not fulfill the promise, just as other politicians have failed to push for a path to legalization for millions of undocumented people.
Now presidential candidate Kamala Harris is backing away from her past promise to use presidential power unilaterally to provide a path to citizenship for 2 million “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
Her campaign team refuses to comment—too risky—it could harm her path to the presidency. Are Dreamers disposable?
Newsom simply turned his back on them and denied them… like the biblical story of Pontius Pilate’s denial of Jesus… ‘he washed his hands.’
They’ve had to endure this, and while they wait, the uncertainty of whether or not DACA protects them leaves these young people in limbo. It seems they are just waiting for the next promise, the next action that will truly make a meaningful difference in their lives.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s decision last week to veto a bill that would have allowed the University of California, California State University, and state community colleges to hire undocumented students for campus jobs—his second veto of legislation aimed at expanding aid to those living illegally in California—is another harsh blow.
An estimated 55,000 undocumented students in such a situation attend California’s public colleges and universities; the state is home to a fifth of the nation’s undocumented college students.
Newsom simply turned his back on them and denied them… like the biblical story of Pontius Pilate’s denial of Jesus… ‘he washed his hands.’
If this country continues to deny them, it cannot claim to be a nation at the forefront but rather an opportunistic one. I accept you when it benefits me; I reject you when you demand your rights.
These Dreamers deserve respect and should no longer be ‘The Forgotten.’ They have every right to walk the university campuses enjoying the same rights as any other student.
11 Years of DACA: Stories of Hope and Resilience from Dreamers
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