On September 5th, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would be getting rid of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Although this decision is not related to the Mexican Border Wall, 

a common topic surrounding the presidential campaign. This is one of the largest decisions regarding immigration our president has made.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, better known as DACA, applies to nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. The program allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country before the age of 16 to obtain valid driver’s licenses, enroll in college and legally secure jobs. Although the program protects the undocumented immigrants from deportation, it does not lead to a path to citizenship or legal residency. Under the Trump Administration, Congress has argued that DACA should be removed and replaced with a more progressive program that would have higher effects on undocumented citizens. The effects were not specified.

Unfortunately, a removal followed by a replacement would have catastrophic effects on those protected under DACA. As great as a new program could be, the time between the expulsion of DACA and the introduction of the new program would lead to many facing deportation, doing the exact opposite of what the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program aimed to do, which is allowing these people to continue living in this country.

Because DACA recipients have not been previously deported or subjected to deportation, those facing deportation would first have to go through a long and tedious immigration court process that is completely inefficient due to the time and costs associated. In response, the American government introduced the DACA program to give undocumented immigrants opportunities to thrive in this country, opportunities that would only further their own development and our country as a whole. Why give all of these rights only to take them away? This simply makes no logical sense.

Many of DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, have spent the majority of their lives living in the United States. All they know is this country. How would sending them back to a country they know nothing of help in any way? Dreamers are our current and future lawyers, doctors, students, neighbors and friends. Most dreamers are not children anymore but grown adults. Most importantly, they are our fellow Americans. As a country founded on immigration, the expulsion of DACA goes against the very ideas that progressed the United States. By taking away the DACA program, we are doing the most un-American thing: trying to prevent those from working hard to achieve a better life.Washington Examiner Photographer