By GEORGE HUNKELE
President Donald Trump decided to cut the DACA program on Sept. 5, 2017, less than a year after being elected. Many student bodies are now in an uproar filled with anger and disappointment.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA program, was originally put in place to protect immigrants who came to the United States when they were younger from being deported. Trump and U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, cut the program in hopes that it would drive undocumented immigrants out of the country.
This decision has affected and upset thousands of people, including friends and family of members of the DACA prog
ram.
“I think that it is a Trump move and isn’t surprising at all. Everyone here should have the same chance to go to college,” said Emmanuel Quinaoo, 24, and Ramapo College graduate when being asked about Trump ending the DACA program.
The DACA program provides undocumented immigrants with protection from deportation and a work permit. In order to originally apply for DACA, immigrants needed to be under 31 years old by June of 2012, had come to the United States before age 16, had to have graduated high school, and could not have ever been convicted of a felony.
There are roughly 800,000 people part of the DACA program in the United States and around 18,000 in New Jersey. DACA is valid until its expiration date, and no new DACA applications will be accepted, DACA Issuance’s and work permits expiring between now and March 5, 2018, must have been submitted for renewal by October 5, 2017, and advance parole to travel abroad is no longer available.
Out of the 800,000 people estimated to be part of DACA program, about 740,000 will stay protected for at least a few more years. The remaining 60,000 will have to worry about being deported unless the DACA program is brought back.
Trump has said a few times that he wants to bring back the DACA program but only if it means the money goes towards building the wall. T
Trump will address the nation in his 2018 State of the Union Tuesday night.
I knew of the premise of DACA but the actual working details of it evaded me. The article had a nice broad overlay and linked to an informative site that went into further detail.
As for additional information, I’m definitely curious in hearing the ramifications of deporting these people back. How would it negatively effect our communities?
As someone who isn’t super familiar with DACA and the whole situation surrounding it, this article was eye-opening for me because I didn’t realize how major this program was for so many undocumented immigrants. I figured there were a lot of people in the program but 800,000 is an astounding number and it’s heartbreaking to me that so many families are losing their loved ones. I never realized that DACA had so many rules in order to be apart of the program (age, high school graduated, no felony, etc.) I thought it was much simpler than that. This article taught me a lot about the program and I don’t think major changes should be made. I would suggest however maybe putting up a picture of a DACA protest to show the emotional side of it and maybe another link or two just for additional background information but besides that this story is in great shape.