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With DACA on the Trump Administration’s chopping block, the need for a permanent law to protect Dreamers is at an all-time high. The Dream and Promise Act of 2019 is the Democratic answer to this issue. While the bill has successfully passed the House it soon will face a Republican-controlled Senate where, to make the Dream Act and Promise Act of 2019 into law, the Democrats will need every Democratic and Independent vote as well the vote of at least four Republicans. If DACA is repealed before is a law passed, then over one million immigrants, many of whom have lived in America most of their lives, will be at high risk of deportation. Before I further advance the idea that there must be some kind of law passed to permanently protect the resident status of DACA recipients, I would like to start by clarifying that anytime I mention the Dream Act, I am referring to the most recent iteration of the bill, The Dream and Promise Act of 2019. As defined by the Dream Act, a “Dreamer” is an “alien” that “has been continuously physically present in the United States since the date that is 4 years before the enactment of this Act… and was younger than 18 years of age on the date on which the alien entered the United States.” The main goal of the Dream Act is to create a conditional permanent resident status for up to eight years for Dreamers, that would protect them from deportation while they either work or go to school legally in the U.S.
The Dream Act is a gateway to even more illegal immigration to the United States. The Dream Act encourages undocumented immigration and even rewards it. *Protecting dreamers and encouraging undocumented immigration takes educational and job opportunities away from current American citizens*. A look at past immigration reform in the US shows a vast increase in illegal immigration after the reform policy was enacted. The 1986 Amnesty legislation granted citizenship to three million illegal immigrants. Instead of the intended effect of trying to put a stop to illegal immigration, this act only spurned an increased rate of illegal immigration, which resulted in over 8.5 million immigrants coming to the U.S. from 1990 to 2007. A large part of this increase and a continuing problem with granting citizenship to immigrants is the effect of chain migration. Chain migration, otherwise known as family reunification, happens when one green card holder or legal U.S. citizen sponsors an immediate family member for immigration to the United States. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that about 65% of new legal immigrants to the United States are due to family-sponsored green-cards. Since 1990 more immigrants have come into the U.S. than ever before in our history with an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the States. With this dramatic increase in illegal immigration comes a higher crime rate, economic turmoil, and political unrest. The good news for Dreamers as far as the concern for chain migration is that because they are young many of them don’t have any contact or relationship with family from outside of the country. However, chain migration remains a valid concern with the Dream Act because it also seeks to grant extended amnesty to immigrants under the protection of the DED (Deferred Enforced Departure) and TPS (Temporary Protected Status) acts. By extending these protections, if the Dream Act is passed, it will be subject to the slippery slope effect where, in the passage of the Dream Act, it would be harder to end and limit these DED and TPS commitments in the future.
In addition to chain migration, another major issue with passing the Dream Act is the financial burden that the U.S. would inherit. Fiscally, granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is a huge burden on the US. According to the Heritage Foundation, if amnesty was granted to every illegal immigrant household, American taxpayers would have to cover an estimated $100-160 billion dollar yearly deficit created by unlawful immigrant households receiving government aid. Granted, the Dream Act isn’t giving amnesty to every illegal household in the U.S.; however, the Dreamers, DED, and TPS recipients total over one million immigrants*. The same research found that unlawful immigrants “never once generated a fiscal surplus,” and that’s before factoring in the cost of amnesty. *That means that no illegal immigrant, even the ones who pay taxes, covers their governmental cost of living, which is to say that for every illegal immigrant there is in America, there is another taxpayer needed to cover their cost of living.
The Heritage Foundation estimates that the cost of illegal immigrants is $100-160 billion dollars per year. Several Fortune 100 companies filed a petition against the removal of DACA claiming “that terminating DACA could wipe $460.3 billion from the GDP over the next decade and reduce tax revenue by $90 billion.” Pitting these two statistics against each other, it seems likely that the negative deficit spending on illegal immigrants primarily comes from the older illegal immigrants as well as the youngest ones. According to Pew Research, 99% of DACA recipients are between the ages of sixteen and 36, demonstrating that almost all the illegal immigrants the Dream Act is attempting to grant amnesty to are either already productive members of society, or are soon to be. One Dreamer, a Harvard grad named Enrique Ramirez, rebutted the conservative fiscal argument by claiming that “there’s been so much money invested in [him] by this country, wouldn’t even a conservative person want [him] to contribute” to his community and the American economy. Ramirez raises a valid point for us to consider why would we deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are all either studying, working, or serving in the military after we have already invested in them? We have already made this giant investment in the Dreamers, so why would America deport these hard-working individuals now right before the investment is beginning to come to fruition with this cohort positively contributing to America’s GDP?
One argument for the passage of the Dream Act is that deporting Dreamers is inhumane. However, anti-immigration groups claim that the actual cruel act is perpetrated by the parents who subject their children to the risks of immigration. Not upholding the law acts as an encouragement of law-breaking and a reward for those who succeed in breaking the law. The Center for Immigration Studies found that many Dreamers go on to commit crimes such as Social Security and tax fraud, falsification of records, as well as various other crimes. As long as they are not convicted of any of these crimes, they are still eligible for legal status.
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