The DREAMers, Trump’s blackmail card
Last Wednesday (Sept. 13), Donald Trump met with Democratic leaders of Congress to reach a legislative accord that might protect the DREAMers, undocumented youths who came to the United States in infancy and are studying or engaged in professional activities.
The Republican executive has conditioned that accord to the tightening of the so-called border security, although at present without measures that point explicitly to the construction of a wall along the Mexican border, one of his main campaign promises.
It should be remembered that the almost 800,000 DREAMers were temporarily protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a process created by former President Barack Obama, and canceled by Trump himself 10 days ago.
It is clear that these students and professionals cannot go on with their lives in a dignified way without a permanent solution to their stay in the country where they grew up and have undertaken all their activities.
Significantly, the Mexican government announced yesterday (Sept. 14) that the topic of a permanent solution for the DREAMers was tackled in a telephone conversation between Trump and President Enrique Peña Nieto. According to a press release from the Mexican government, Trump expressed optimism that the U.S. Congress would reach a solution benefiting the youths who are now in the project.
Two reflections are pertinent. First, the true basic solution is the granting of full citizenship. From cultural, economic, emotional and social standpoints, the young people in question are already U.S. citizens.
These are not people who form a separate community in the United States but, in one way or another, they have assimilated here. Therefore, the refusal to grant them the legal status befitting their situation is inhumane for the “dreamers” themselves and those around them.
Second, recent events show that the magnate used the threat to deport hundreds of thousands of people — whose contribution is vital to the U.S. economy — to achieve his paranoid and xenophobic objectives regarding the border the U.S. shares with Mexico.
This has no relation whatever with the young immigrants, inasmuch as they did not cross the border on their initiative or are persons who commute from one side to the other. To summarize, in a cruel and outrageous manner, Trump used them as bargaining chips and even as hostages.
That is why the cancellation of DACA and the anguish caused to millions of people — the youngsters, their families and countless people who have supported them — have been revealed as a social blackmail imposed by Trump for the purpose of financing an illusory idea of border security that is both immoral and racist.
[PHOTO AT TOP shows President Trump meeting with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer, next to her. Second from left is Mitch McConnell, Republican leader of the Senate.]
