The DREAM Act

First introduced by Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch, US senators and well-recognized politicians, on August 1, 2001, the DREAM (short for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act proposes to grant legal status to immigrants that entered the States as minors and studied there. The bipartisan bill has remained unpassed so far despite various versions of it having been presented to the Congress.

The bill would grant conditional residency to said immigrants at first, followed by permanent residence upon meeting the criteria for qualification. There are several requirements that such an individual would be required to meet in the case the bill is passed such as having arrived in the US before the age of 18, have graduated from an American high school, having a good moral character and others (H. Ojeda & C. Takash, 2011). The main objective of the DREAM Act is to legalize undocumented immigrants, called DREAMers and almost 2 million in number, who have attended school in the US. The importance of the bill is that if passed, it would produce college graduates on a scale of thousands, and would help generate a large amount of revenue (H. Ojeda & C. Takash, 2011).

DACA

In June 2012, the then US President Barack Obama announced a policy known as DACA (short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which delayed the deportation of undocumented immigrants that had come to the US as minors, for two years, and also made them eligible for a U.S. work permit (Joblin-Leeds, 2016). DACA made possible the removal of a constant threat among the youngsters and sanctioned nearly 800,000 eligible youngsters to work, go to school and frame their lives and future without the danger of being deported. However, DACA does not give a permanent legal status of being a citizen to individuals and has to be renewed every two years. Students who are eligible for DACA are not provided with any grants, scholarships and student loans. Once they graduate, they can give an application for a work permit (Venegas et al., 2017).

United We Dream Network

United We Dream Network is one of the many organizations that are playing an active part in empowering young undocumented immigrants and countering the opposition to steps taken by the government, which aim at their welfare. It was founded in 2008 and is lauded for being the largest immigrant youth-led organization working for their rights in the US. It consists of nearly 400,000 members and has affiliations with small groups and organizations across 28 states. UWDN aims at producing a unifying space for young people regardless of their immigration status to entitle and empower them to turn their fears and aspirations into their voices and then making these voices heard across the corridors of power. UWDN has been playing an active part in the protection of the fundamental rights of immigrants. It also defends against deportations and struggles for getting young immigrants to access to education. In 2009, UDWN held its first national meeting, which was followed by the first national congress in Minnesota with 40 participants. UWDN has worked a great deal to end deportations. It started a project called END (Education Not Deportation) by which it propagated the stories of deportation cases across the country. In this way, it was successful in agitating communities and transforming popular thinking on immigration and deportation. It also carries out extensive research to highlight the disparities young immigrants have to face when they try to become an active part of the society in the US. UWDN also engaged several other movements that worked for the attainment of universal social justice. UWDN developed a hotline that was assigned to identify people who were DACA eligible but were in detention or being removed. Another major step that UWDN took was that it started a correspondence with policymakers regarding the growing problem of immigrant status in the US. It built healthy relations with members of congress and held 11 meetings with nine members from the House of Representatives and two from the Senate. On one occasion, it engaged 59 members of the congress. UWDN also engaged itself in direct action that exposed the unjust and inhumane immigration system, particularly highlighting the role played by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). It also called for greater accountability within the system to prevent inhuman behaviors against immigrants. UWDN has a non-profit structure. It grew from a small space where undocumented immigrant youth could come together, converse about their common struggles and work for their betterment to a fully developed non-profit organization.

The cause that is being pursued by UWDN certainly has a huge economic impact. According to the U.S Chamber of Commerce, “Ending DACA would be a nightmare for dreamers, a nightmare for businesses, a nightmare for America’s economy”. The end to DACA would mean 1.06 million DACA eligible individuals who are currently a big part of the workforce to leave their current professions and move to small odd jobs that do not require legal immigration status. The incentive to the DACA eligible students that are still in school would also be reduced to a great extent which would compromise the employment opportunities that they were going to have once they were done with education (Brannon & McGee, 2019).  DACA recipients make a great contribution towards the tax-base on all the levels in the state.

Similarly, being hard-working people, DACA recipients contribute to the consumer spending power and this would increase once the young immigrants that are still in school join the workforce. The individuals who are eligible for DACA are not just getting educated or employed but are also developers of startups and businesses. This makes them employers, and thus, they contribute a major sure towards the economy in the same way as does the growing workforce or education. Currently, America’s economy is dependent on immigrants to a significant extent. The end of DACA means a medium scale economic slowdown which would be detrimental for America in this new age of global competitors trying to take up economic hegemony.

UWDN has cast a huge impact on the public opinion regarding immigration and deportation and has significantly brought a shift in it. It has changed the popular understanding by making the populace see the emotions and the sentiments behind the procedures of immigration and deportation. It has produced significantly clear visual messages which have imparted a change in the mindset of individuals. It has also built political power for itself by the establishment of a political voice. It has raised the voices of the affected and most vulnerable groups to the corridors. Apart from changing the ideas of the general public, UWDN has played a great role in changing the thinking of immigrants themselves. It has inculcated great political consciousness among the immigrants and has made known to them their rights. The coming out of “Dreamers” on a platform like UWDN helped to counter the public misconceptions regarding them. Dreamers challenged negative stereotypes that had been associated with them over a long period and were successful in debunking them. UWDN strategically used its relationship with media, which led to adequate socialization regarding immigration issues.

Several examples can be mentioned which are a practical embodiment of the results brought by the efforts of UWDN. From 2012-2014, UWDN attained many political successes. DACA was a result of the struggle carried out by UWDN following the failure of the passing of The Dream Act. This was the most initial success that strengthened it as a platform that gave a voice to the immigrants. UWDN has been working to protect and defend DACA ever since.

References

1. Ojeda, R., & C. Takash, P. (2011). No DREAMers Left Behind. Los Angeles.
2. Joblin-Leeds, G. (2016). When We Fight, We Win: Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World. The New Press.
3. Venegas, Kristan, et al. “Understanding DACA and the Implications for Higher Education.” Pullias Center for Higher Education, 2011.
4. Brannon, Ike, and M. Kevin McGee. “Estimating the Economic Impacts of DACA.” 2019