Congress Needs to Fix DACA

By Lizbeth Cuellar | Big Stick Editor |

On Sept. 5, President Donald J. Trump announced he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (also known as DACA), which affects more than 800,000 undocumented students and young working adults in the United States.

DACA was first passed by Barack Obama back on June 15, 2012 to give an opportunity to young immigrants who wished to get a beneficial education in America. A person had to be enrolled in school, be less than the age of 16, with no criminal record and have lived continuously in the United States since June 15, 2007 to be eligible and receive a work permit card, which allows them to be in the country without any concerns. Although the child had rights like a citizen, it didn’t mean they had become a U.S. citizen.

Many people weren’t surprised about Trump’s decision to take down the program, but were indeed shocked that it happened out of nowhere and in the most inconvenient of times to do so. Ever since the news broke, college students mainly have been worried about whether they could still carry on with their classes, while high school students worried if they could even still go to college in the first place. There is no entry for new applications and those who are already enrolled may still renew their permission six months before its expiration date. Out of many situations that Trump has brought to the nation, DACA was a most unnecessary announcement to address at this time of year.

Instead of making America better and greater, he divides us even more as individuals. Protests, marches, and petitions have been made to keep this program up and running. News coverage of Democrats and Republicans have been shown expressing their devastation for these immigrant students, those whose permission expires March of 2018. They will not be able to re-enter their application and could be returned to their home country.

Although we are now in October, news keeps changing every day on what should be done to still keep DACA together. Trump’s government, including Trump himself, have mentioned the fact that the program would still be available, but only under his terms and conditions, which only means new applications and different eligibility standards. Congressional Republicans made a committee including local representative Will Hurd from San Antonio, Texas to develop new ideas on keeping the program together.  We still have a couple of months left in the year, with people still fighting for freedom and rights, Trump’s big mistake can’t be overlooked like the many others he has caused.