DACA Policy Pros And Cons

President Donald Trump has been advocating for the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program since September 2017 for what he believes is a violation of the Constitution. The controversy of terminating the DACA policy is one of several reasons why the US experienced government shutdowns in January and February 2018, displaying its current significance in American policymaking today. With that knowledge in mind, this paper will define the two primary opposing policy positions (to continue or not to continue DACA) and a proposed compromise currently developing in Congress. According to Tal Kopan of CNN, the DACA policy was implemented by the Obama administration in 2012 and aimed to allow, “Undocumented immigrants who

According to Grace Donnelly of Fortune, the reason as to why DACA is beneficial is because it “allows people who came to the U.S. as children. . . and contribute to the economy.” Applicants of this program first came about when they were brought by their parents during their illegal immigration to the United States. This means that as children, they had no choice but to immigrate with their parents at the time. According to Ilya Somin, House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don’t know another home.” Supporters of the DACA policy explains that the recipients, at an early age before they immigrated, had no recollection of life before arriving in the United States. In simpler terms, if DACA were to end, the affected recipient would be deported back to the original homeland they never remembered they lived in (where they have

According to Hans Spakovsky of Heritage, “Congress specifically rejected bills to provide such benefits [of DACA].” The opposers of the DACA program says that Obama never received approval from Congress to create the amnesty of DACA, therefore claiming that he enacted the policy through unilateral action which is unconstitutional. In order for the immigrant program to become constitutional, the policy must obtain approval in both the House and Senate and/or have it go through judicial review in the Supreme Court. “DACA denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said (Spagat and Rugaber). This statement by Sessions implies that the DACA recipients are stealing jobs from American workers. Opposers would agree that this policy could promote immigration from different countries because potential immigrants would see the United States presenting a false perception of welcomed immigration, especially when economic opportunities