Expertclick New Release Jan. 29, 2018        WHO ARE DACA RECIPIENTS and DREAMERS?                722 wds

Who Are DACA/DREAMERS Really? 

By Peggy Sands Orchowski

 On Jan. 19, the federal government was shut down because of the failure to permanently legalize DACA (also called DREAMERS) recipients -- 690,000 immigrants who are currently protected from deportation by President Obama's June 2012 executive memo "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 

 On Dec. 22, Congress agreed to fund the government until Feb. 8 with promises to address a permanent solution for DACA DREAMERs. 

 Who are these DACA/DREAMERS really over whom mainly Democrats shut down the government?

 The common description in the media and in Congress is "children who were brought into the country illegally by their parents".  Many like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Ed Henry of Fox news say "they came in as infants".

 None of those words exist in requirements for DACA or DREAMER applicants.

 As a credentialed Congressional journalist the past ten years and the author of two books on immigration, I have been covering how advocates for DACA DREAMERS have exaggerated who they are in order to drive their larger immigration agendas.  Since they are key to continuing government funding, it's vital to get it right who they are exactly.

 DACA recipients

In Obama's executive memo for DACA, these are the five basic qualifications:

·       came to the United States under the age of sixteen;

·       continuously resided in the United States for a least five years;

·       currently in school or has graduated from high school or the equivalent;

·       never convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise poses a threat to national security or public safety;   and

·       not above the age of thirty.

Clearly today DACA recipients are adults between the ages of 18-30, millennials, not children nor kids. Only 4.5% came in as infants according to USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services).

There are no statistics about what percentage of DACAs came in legally, illegally, alone, brought in by parents, relatives or paid traffickers, on the top of a train, by assaulting a border wall, swimming across the border or on a plane or over a legal border crossing with a temporary visa.

DACA does not confer legal status. DACA recipients are still illegal immigrants, although documented and with valid albeit temporary (two to three year) work permits..

Presidential executive orders and memos like DACA are NOT laws. They can be rescinded anytime by a sitting president.   

President Trump rescinded Obama's DACA order as of March 5, 2018. All DACA recipients will lose their deportation waiver and work permits on that date and will be legally vulnerable to deportation at any time after. But no one in the Trump administration has indicated that there will be a massive sweep and deportation of DACA recipients. Mass deportation is realistically and politically highly unlikely. 

President Trump left it to Congress to decide what to do.

DREAMERS

DREAMERS are a broader group.  Depending on which DreamAct legislation may pass, they could number between 2-3 million.  All the 690,000 current DACA recipients are DREAMERs, but not all DREAMERS are DACA. 

The latest DREAM Act proposed is S1615, submitted on July 20, 2017 by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and  Jeff Flake (AZ) and Democrats Chuck Schumer (NY) and Richard Dick Durbin (Il). 

The basic requirements" are (verbatim):

·       Have been continuously physically present in the U.S. since the date of enactment for four years;

·       Was younger than 18 years of age on the date the alien initially entered the U.S.

·       Has not been convicted of more than three federal offenses and imprisoned for an aggregate of 90 days or more;

·       Has earned a high school degree or the equivalent (GED or certificate)

·       Has been admitted to an institution of higher education (including to complete a high school certificate if over 18);

·       Was a DACA recipient unless they engaged in conduct that would make them ineligible

 There are pages of exemptions, exceptions and waivers, even for documentation to prove any of the above.

As with DACA recipients, DREAMER status would be decided on a case-by-case basis.

 The three basic differences between DACA and DREAMER requirements are:

·       broader age of entry: in S1615 DREAMERS came in before18 years old not 16;

·       fewer years required to be here:  four rather than five;

·       can serve 90 days in jail for a felony offense and still qualify.

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Peggy (Margaret) Sands Orchowski porchowski@hotmail.com  is the author of "The Law That Changed The Face of America: The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965" (Rowman & Littlefield, Sept. 2015); and"Immigration and the American Dream: Battling the Political Hype and Hysteria" (Rowman & Littlefield Oct. 2008). She is the senior correspodent for the Hispanic Outlook magazine and the Georgetowner newspaper.

Portions of this piece appeared in the Georgetowner.com January 25, 2018