On Tuesday, President Donald Trump held a bipartisan congressional meeting, allowing cameras and press to be present for the proceedings. The primary focus of the meeting was immigration, with some discussion also being dedicated to the President’s planned infrastructure proposals. The immigration discussion seemed to confirm what many in the media and the public at large have suspected for weeks, President Trump will allow the continued residence of DACA beneficiaries in the United States in exchange for an end to chain migration and the visa lottery system as well as funding for the long-awaited boarder wall.
This pivot on DACA by the President, may on the surface, seem a fitting compromise that brings much needed reform to the immigration system while also appeasing the obstructionist Democratic Party. Upon closer examination however, it clearly does little more than exacerbate the problem that has been at the heart of American immigration policy since President Reagan granted the amnesty to 3.2 million illegal immigrants in 1986. This policy decision if enacted continues to send a message to the world that an immigrant is more likely to attain permanent status by entering the United States illegally, than they would be were they to enter legally.
There are many children who are brought into the United States legally by their parents on long-term but temporary Visas, who, could just as soon make emotional appeals akin to the “no fault of our own” and “knowing no other home” arguments of DACA proponents, yet establishment politicians, and as of today the Trump administration don’t seem nearly as interested in even discussing the plight of these individuals, while they spend months discussing how best to accommodate those who came into the country illegally. It is hard to see this as anything other than an incentive to break the law. If the only difference between coming into this country legally and coming in illegally is that the illegal route leads to citizenship at the end, then why should we ever expect anybody to follow immigration law? Moreover, why even have immigration law? For decades now, the immigration debate has been framed through the lens of how America can cater to illegal immigrants, while legal immigrants who went through the required immigration processes and may want to one day perhaps be given the opportunity to upgrade their status, have been left in limbo with no clear path to take or “line” to get in. Is that to say legal immigrants should be granted blanket long term status? No, of course not. They should however, be acknowledged by legislators for respecting and following the laws of the country while millions of others pour over the border illegally.
The allowance for DACA by the Trump administration will be nothing short of a total return to the tepid, limp-wristed, non-committal immigration policies of the Clinton/Bush/Obama cabal, and a major betrayal of both Trump’s hard-line base and the many legal immigrants who were hoping to see a clearer fairer system, that provides preference for those who choose to respect the law of the land, under the Trump administration.