The real meaning and importance of DACA

From a blog post by Juan Escalante:

Various sectors across the United States, including agriculture and tourism, are already feeling the strains of Donald Trump’s xenophobic agenda, while millions of immigrant families are currently living in fear of being torn apart by Trump’s “unshackled” immigration enforcement officers.

My parents, for example, could be taken from me if they were caught driving without a driver’s license, and, despite staying out of trouble with the law and paying their taxes, they could be sent back to a country that is currently experiencing extreme political and economic unrest.

Yes, I spent the first couple of months of the Trump Administration in fear that the DACA program could be terminated the next day, or the day after that, or the week after that. But today, on the fifth anniversary of the DACA program, I remain committed to fighting for my undocumented community more than ever before.

The challenges that immigrants will face under the Trump Administration will not be easy, but we cannot allow ourselves to sit down and give up. We didn’t win DACA or local pro-migrant policies at the state and local level by cowering in fear; we won them by standing up for what was right and just, for the hard work that immigrants, from all backgrounds, continue to do all across the country we call our home.

Let DACA’s fifth anniversary serve as a reminder of what the program has allowed DREAMers like me accomplish, and what it will do for thousands of young immigrants who are currently in school studying to become the next lawyer, doctor, or entrepreneur that our country needs to become stronger.

Read the rest of the article here.