So President Trump is poised to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, with a six month delay. What a humanitarian.
To try and understand Trump's decision making here, we could talk about his petty desire to rewind anything that President Obama has done. We could also discuss how Trump and the GOP are going to use DACA over the next six months to extort the Democrats over other legislative issues. Simply put, they could threaten not to cooperate on DACA unless they get what they want in other areas. Or we could discuss how Trump wants to distract - for the next 6 months - from the Russia investigation, by holding the lives of hundreds of thousands of hard working productive people hostage to his very real financial and political problems.
Let's be clear here. Rewinding President Obama's policies, political extortion, and political diversion are all part of Donald Trump's DACA thinking.But I don't want to focus on the petty and divisive reasons for Trump's decision to rescind DACA. At least not in this post.
Instead let's focus on the reasons Trump, the GOP, and Congress should begin working on strengthening and expanding DACA. I'll be brief.
IT'S IN THE ECONOMICS ...
For starters, DACA has been an economic success, and a humanitarian triumph. The number of DACA recipients in school or working, and contributing to society, makes it clear that DACA should be a strong first step in making our undocumented population "legal" participants in America. Work hard and get ahead has always been an American refrain, and DACA's successes here means it needs to be honored, and extended.
Unfortunately, the economic contributions of DACA recipients are often overlooked by hateful bigots who use the status of the law to demand draconian measures against children who had nothing to do with their undocumented position here in the United States.
What this means is that, rather than looking at the positive economic and humanitarian contributions of DACA recipients, the primary focus for many conservatives is how DACA recipients are here "illegally."
IT'S IN OUR HISTORY ...
What people who focus on the legal angle ignore, or never learned, is America's long history of changing laws to welcome or accommodate those who contribute to America. What they forget is that many of the people who helped settle and win the West were once considered "illegal." The squatters who moved west, because much of the land on the Eastern seaboard was owned by others, or had been exhausted by poor farming techniques, became outlaws in the eyes of the law during the 1850s and 1860s.
Fortunately for them, Abraham Lincoln and Congress decided to act. In spite of simply focusing on the ugliness of a nation that was enmeshed in a bitter and ugly Civil War, the Homestead Act was passed in 1862. Virtually overnight, a large group hardworking people who were once viewed as a public nuisance, and even considered illegal squatters in the territories, became the backbone of America's middle class.
Manifest Destiny and the building of the American Dream were energized in the process.
If we fast forward 124 years we see another episode of "illegals" being granted legal status. In 1986, under the Immigration Reform Act of 1986 President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to almost 3 million undocumented workers and their families.
Reagan's amnesty, in effect, was viewed as a humanitarian gesture (even if the proposed crackdown on abusive employers was stripped out of the legislation).
Let's fast forward another 22 years. It's 2008 and both Republicans and Democrats got together to allow investment banks, who collapsed the economy in 2008, to qualify for federally backed insurance they had not previously paid into. The American taxpayer, in effect, guaranteed Wall Street's bailout.
In the process we took a group of people - the nation's biggest investment bankers and Wall Street financiers - and made their bailout both legal and politically acceptable. All of the illegal trading and bets they had made, with money they didn't have, were suddenly cleansed transactions. Wall Streets biggest market players lived to see another day.
While the point of reminding everyone about the Homestead Act, Reagan's amnesty, and Wall Street's bailout is to show how quickly America can clean up the "illegal" status of any group - homesteaders, migrants, and bankers - the reality is our GOP lead Congress have yet to demonstrate they have a political spine to go against Donald Trump.
So let's take another route, and look at what the Bible says about the topic.
IT'S ALSO IN THE BIBLE ...
If it's political backbone our Republican Congress needs, perhaps infusing them with the spirit of the Bible might help. Specifically, for those of you wondering "What Would Jesus Do?" I'll leave you with this YouTube clip of Father James Martin, who explains what the Bible says about refugees, migrants and foreigners.
One thing's clear: Donald Trump's position on DACA is not what Jesus would do. Not even close.
- Mark
To try and understand Trump's decision making here, we could talk about his petty desire to rewind anything that President Obama has done. We could also discuss how Trump and the GOP are going to use DACA over the next six months to extort the Democrats over other legislative issues. Simply put, they could threaten not to cooperate on DACA unless they get what they want in other areas. Or we could discuss how Trump wants to distract - for the next 6 months - from the Russia investigation, by holding the lives of hundreds of thousands of hard working productive people hostage to his very real financial and political problems.
Let's be clear here. Rewinding President Obama's policies, political extortion, and political diversion are all part of Donald Trump's DACA thinking.But I don't want to focus on the petty and divisive reasons for Trump's decision to rescind DACA. At least not in this post.
Instead let's focus on the reasons Trump, the GOP, and Congress should begin working on strengthening and expanding DACA. I'll be brief.
IT'S IN THE ECONOMICS ...
For starters, DACA has been an economic success, and a humanitarian triumph. The number of DACA recipients in school or working, and contributing to society, makes it clear that DACA should be a strong first step in making our undocumented population "legal" participants in America. Work hard and get ahead has always been an American refrain, and DACA's successes here means it needs to be honored, and extended.
Unfortunately, the economic contributions of DACA recipients are often overlooked by hateful bigots who use the status of the law to demand draconian measures against children who had nothing to do with their undocumented position here in the United States.
What this means is that, rather than looking at the positive economic and humanitarian contributions of DACA recipients, the primary focus for many conservatives is how DACA recipients are here "illegally."
IT'S IN OUR HISTORY ...
What people who focus on the legal angle ignore, or never learned, is America's long history of changing laws to welcome or accommodate those who contribute to America. What they forget is that many of the people who helped settle and win the West were once considered "illegal." The squatters who moved west, because much of the land on the Eastern seaboard was owned by others, or had been exhausted by poor farming techniques, became outlaws in the eyes of the law during the 1850s and 1860s.
Fortunately for them, Abraham Lincoln and Congress decided to act. In spite of simply focusing on the ugliness of a nation that was enmeshed in a bitter and ugly Civil War, the Homestead Act was passed in 1862. Virtually overnight, a large group hardworking people who were once viewed as a public nuisance, and even considered illegal squatters in the territories, became the backbone of America's middle class.
Manifest Destiny and the building of the American Dream were energized in the process.
If we fast forward 124 years we see another episode of "illegals" being granted legal status. In 1986, under the Immigration Reform Act of 1986 President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to almost 3 million undocumented workers and their families.
At the time Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming) said, "It's not perfect, but 2.9 million people came forward. If you can bring
one person out of an exploited relationship, that's good enough for
me."
Reagan's amnesty, in effect, was viewed as a humanitarian gesture (even if the proposed crackdown on abusive employers was stripped out of the legislation).
Let's fast forward another 22 years. It's 2008 and both Republicans and Democrats got together to allow investment banks, who collapsed the economy in 2008, to qualify for federally backed insurance they had not previously paid into. The American taxpayer, in effect, guaranteed Wall Street's bailout.
In the process we took a group of people - the nation's biggest investment bankers and Wall Street financiers - and made their bailout both legal and politically acceptable. All of the illegal trading and bets they had made, with money they didn't have, were suddenly cleansed transactions. Wall Streets biggest market players lived to see another day.
While the point of reminding everyone about the Homestead Act, Reagan's amnesty, and Wall Street's bailout is to show how quickly America can clean up the "illegal" status of any group - homesteaders, migrants, and bankers - the reality is our GOP lead Congress have yet to demonstrate they have a political spine to go against Donald Trump.
So let's take another route, and look at what the Bible says about the topic.
IT'S ALSO IN THE BIBLE ...
If it's political backbone our Republican Congress needs, perhaps infusing them with the spirit of the Bible might help. Specifically, for those of you wondering "What Would Jesus Do?" I'll leave you with this YouTube clip of Father James Martin, who explains what the Bible says about refugees, migrants and foreigners.
One thing's clear: Donald Trump's position on DACA is not what Jesus would do. Not even close.
- Mark
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