A Dream Act, at What Price?
Last week Trump sent his “term sheet” to congressional republicans containing what he wants in exchange for a “DREAM Act” that would provide an eventual path to citizenship for Dreamers. In contrast to his earlier statements (“I will sign any Dream Act legislation that is put on my desk”), Trump is now attempting to extract an enormously steep price for a path to citizenship for Dreamers. The price is so steep that many Dreamers themselves have already come out against his proposed framework. Rather than being satisfied with an enormous amount of money for his wall, Trump is now demanding massive changes to our entire immigration system. The most striking changes are:
The elimination of all family preference immigration categories AND the right of U.S. citizens to petition for their parents
Currently, the family immigration system is broken into two categories for family members:
(1) The first category is immediate relatives (“IRs”) consisting of spouses, minor children (under 21) and parents of U.S. citizens. There are neither quotas nor wait lists for IR’s (except for the time required to process the applications) since these relationships are so close.
(2) The second category is broadly titled the “preference categories” consisting of adult children and siblings of U.S. citizens, and spouses, minor children and unmarried adult children of lawful permanent residents (LPR’s or green card holders). For preference categories, there are usually very long waiting periods to immigrate to the U.S. (as long as 20 years) because the U.S. only lets in a fixed number of immigrants in these categories each year.
The White House plan proposes to eliminate the immediate relative sub-category of parents of U.S. citizens and eliminate all preference categories. This is a monumental change to our existing immigration system. Ironically, the White House titles this section “Protect the Nuclear Family”, yet the proposal drastically reduces the family members that can immigrate to the U.S., only preserving spouses and minor children of citizens. The elimination of parents is particularly bizarre and heartless. Is the U.S. ready to step this afar away from a valued practical and cultural norm of taking care of your parents as they age? The elimination of the preference categories would also be extremely detrimental and very short-sighted, particularly because it is moving forward without any real discussion or research conducted by the White House or Congress into the issues.
The elimination of the diversity lottery program:
The diversity lottery allows 50,000 new immigrants into the country each year from traditionally underrepresented parts of the world. Applicants must meet minimum education or work experience requirements to qualify for the lottery. The lottery is based on the principle that diversity is a source of strength, an idea which use to be a widely shared and valued principle in this country.
The use of “expedited removals” to deport visa overstays:
With this change, any person who overstays their visa would become subject to deportation without the due process right of first seeing an immigration judge. Such a measure would be particularly harsh and have a huge adverse effect on many U.S. citizens since many of these individuals only overstay their visas because they are in a relationship or marry a U.S. citizen. Many others also have an understandable reason for overstaying their visa such as a legitimate claim to asylum or eligibility for a U visa based on being the victim of a serious crime. If these individuals are deported, they will be subject to the deportation bar and face substantial hurdles to returning to this country, despite the fact that they may have a lawful path to obtain their green card. Quite simply, this punishment would severely outweigh the crime in most cases and adversely affect the rights of many U.S. citizen and resident family members.
Is it worth it?
It is truly sad and amoral to use the lives of the Dreamers in an attempt to change our immigration system in such a profound and negative way. These are young people who did not understand that they were were not Americans until they were teenagers. Many were brought here in the arms of their parents. Now Trump dangles their lives in front of the Democrats mercilessly to see how much he can extract for their protection. This starting point is certainly not a positive sign in these negotiations, but perhaps some rational members of his own party can convince Trump to back off from these demands, and merely take the King’s ransom that he is requesting for his wall in exchange for protecting the Dreamers.
Photo by Feifei Peng on Unsplash