Donald Trump tweeted on Easter Sunday: “DACA is dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act, and now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon… No longer works. Must build Wall and secure our borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!”
Immigration lawyer, David Stranger, says the fate of the DACA Dreamers isn’t a problem, just yet.
“In the United States Congress has jurisdiction over immigration. Of course, that authority is delegated to the executive branch, but they have no status because the president can’t come up with a program to give status that has to come through Congress,” said Strange.
There is still hope for some type of legislation to be put in place for the protection of dreamers.
“You should assume the worst, but that shouldn’t keep you from continuing to do what you’re doing,” said DACA Recipient, Christopher Ponce.
Ponce first arrived to the United States when he was 4-years-old. In his opinion, this tweet makes it seem like there will be no path to citizenship in the near future.
“That’s unfortunate. Because a lot of dreamers, that’s what we’re hoping for. There are a lot of things that we can do with our DACA permit, but there’s a lot of things that we can’t do because we’re not citizens,” said Ponce.
But this doesn’t diminish his hope.
“It just means we have to wait longer. It’s unfortunate, but I think we’ll eventually get there,” Ponce said.
The president has also threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, if Mexico’s government doesn’t step up their own border security efforts.
One frequently asked question is: Why can ‘dreamers’ become legal citizens? Most people think there is an application for citizenship, but there is no way these dreamers can apply to be a citizen.
That’s what congress has been trying to figure out, a path for dreamers towards citizenship. For now, all they can do is wait and reapply for their DACA permit every two years.