On March 25, President Trump tweeted: “…remember DACA, the Democrats abandoned you (but we will not)!” When talking about Trump it’s not much of a surprise to say that what he tweeted isn’t true: he hasn’t got the best relationship with the truth. (He’s currently at 2,436 lies or misleading statements according to the Washington Post’s lie tracker.) What is notable, however, is what Trump is trying to accomplish with it.
Back in September, the Trump administration announced the ending of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and, in doing so, urged Congress to find a solution. Since that point, Trump has narrowed the responsibility of finding a solution to Democratic congress members, who he claims have abandoned DACA by not cooperating.
But simply put, this is not the Democrats’ fault. It was an immoral and unethical action for Trump to end DACA, much less to do it and then blame the Democrats for it. Seeing that around 40 NC State students are affected directly by Trump’s DACA decision, and potentially more have relatives impacted, our campus has an obligation to keep track of who’s to blame for disruptions to this program.
In light of the recent announcement by a U.S. District Judge allowing a lawsuit against the Trump DACA policy to proceed, as well as Trump’s recent tweet that he will no longer work towards a deal on DACA, it’s a fantastic opportunity to remind you why this crisis still matters, and more importantly why, in 2020, we need to remember that President Trump held DACA recipients hostage.
Trump claims that Democrats aren’t cooperating in finding a better solution to the DACA crisis. Ignoring the fact that Trump created the DACA crisis, the Democrats control neither house of Congress and so couldn’t pass a satisfactory version without substantial compromise. Notably, Trump offered a path to citizenship for the DACA “Dreamers” if Democrats agreed to pass funding for the border wall. But this “compromise” could result in serious voter backlash, as evidenced by an NPR poll which found that 60 percent of Americans believe that the border wall “wastes taxpayer money.”
With members of Congress facing the threat of being voted out of office or losing a majority in the next election, it’s doubtful that either side is looking to compromise right now. Instead, Trump is really trying to make Democrats look like they’re uncooperative, by making them choose between a bad deal or nothing, which could hurt Democrats in the next election. Plus, if Democrats choose the deal, it could fund the border wall, which was a large campaign promise that Trump ran on.
In order to force a bad deal, Trump needs to pressure Democrats, and he has been able to use the 689,800 DACA recipients whose immigration status is in danger as that pressure. What Trump is essentially doing is holding over half a million individuals’ well-being hostage and demanding a ransom from the Democrats.
With just over half of the DACA-eligible population being high school or college students, holding a program like this hostage not only hurts morally for a lot of us, it hurts personally. We have seen demonstrations supporting DACA in Raleigh and even on campus. Our peers will have to live with the fear of their immigration status being in jeopardy until this ordeal is settled.
Previously, Trump has claimed that he would be willing to make a deal. While this might seem appealing initially, it has downsides. The main political concern is that it would jeopardize the chance of passing better legislation whenever Democrats regain control; legislators would be more willing to vote for a more far-reaching solution if it were a more pressing issue.
Although if Democrats compromise, they might relieve some of the pressure in the short term, if they hold their ground until they have a majority and can make a deal on their own terms, they might solve the issue for good.
Not only that, but of the bills that have come to a vote so far, none have passed. This includes one bipartisan bill which Trump threatened to veto shortly before the Senate voted. Trump has said he’s willing to make a deal, but his aides stated he will veto any bill that isn’t crafted around the White House’s immigration policy.
As college students, since we are constantly burdened with responsibilities and new tasks, it can be hard to keep up with the news. More than that though, we as citizens are being bombarded with headline after headline with old ones fading in memory.
But if there is one action that we can’t forget when 2020 rolls around, it’s Trump’s ransom of DACA recipients. We can’t let the fading of our memory convince us that the DACA crisis was the Democrats’ fault. Trump has killed DACA and is hoping that we all forget that he is guilty. But we must not forget. When the chance comes for us to make a change, we must remember one of the cruelest things that our president has done and hold him accountable for it.
The resolution to this problem doesn’t seem in sight yet. If the DACA crisis continues to affect the student body, we must make sure that our university upholds their word and continues to “encourage support for DACA students” through legal counsel and more. Every member of the student body must be protected as promised until this issue is finally resolved.
