The dream is turning into a nightmare for the 800,000 immigrants that came into the country as children, and were shielded by former President Obama’s policy, Deferred Action for Children Arrivals (Dream Act Bill). This bill granted some of the minors who entered the country illegally a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation, and became eligible for a work permit.
Last week, as promised by current POTUS Donald Trump on his first day at the office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the program is being repealed. Sessions claimed that the DACA beneficiaries were lawbreakers who adversely impacted the wages and employment of native-born Americans and that DACA is to blame for the surge in unaccompanied minors coming to the United States from Mexico and Central America. Trump also claimed like he always does, that he knows and everybody knows that ‘virtually all top legal advisers’ believe that DACA is unconstitutional.
Congress was given a six-month courtesy period, so they can come up with an alternate immigration plan, but a White House memo said that DACA recipients should “use the time remaining on their work authorizations to prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States” meaning 800,000 young people who grew up in this country, with our values and American ways, will be forced to leave to a place that they have never really known.
Groups of Dreamers have gathered around supposedly left-leaning Ivanka Trump, and his spouse Jared Kushner who serves as the POTUS senior advisor, in a candlelight vigil outside her Washington home, with the hopes that they will fight to protect DACA.
Concerned Community members from WA, CA, NM, AZ, TX, ID, VA holding a vigil outside Jared Kushner & @IvankaTrump's house #DefendDACA pic.twitter.com/caGf0mIFah
— Cris Ruiz (@votecris2040) September 5, 2017
It’s probably time for the Dreamers to place their efforts in other places because the narrative of this story hasn’t shown Ivanka to be a person of character who can hold leverage against her deeply flawed father. Trump’s senior advisers are also inefficient in swaying Trump’s violent approach on major policies decisions. Neither Jared, nor Ivanka, were able to keep Trump from withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, nor were they able to prevent the ban on transgender troops from the military. They weren’t even able to get dad to condemn white supremacists rallies in Virginia, it’s a long stretch to believe that they would be able to help now.
Still, Ivanka Trump will continue to use immigrant success stories as publicity stunts, like she did back in 2015 when she championed undocumented Mexican immigrant and Wall Street prodigy Julissa Arce.
We love this story about an undocumented immigrant who worked her way up on Wall Street. http://t.co/YOtMoFeqAz @business #ITWeeklyClicks
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) March 8, 2015
We wonder how Ivanka feels about this story now that it’s most relevant, Ms. Arce took to Twitter to address the First Daughter’s silence on the subject.
Before things got Poltiical,@IvankaTrump loved my story. But now her silence says it all. #DefendDACA https://t.co/xOOoObPSPT
— Julissa Natzely Arce Raya (@julissaarce) September 4, 2017
Do you think Ivanka will actually step up to her responsibility, and use her position of power to help the downtrodden individuals whom with she never misses a photo op? Let us know what you think in the comments below.