With the new Trump Administration, there has been a great amount of changes being made at the White House, from travel bans to healthcare and now the most recent heated topic of DACA. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program developed by the previous administration, the Obama administration, has been a gateway for undocumented students to obtain a working permit and become eligible for a driving license along with living without the fear of being deported. Trump recently took the first steps to removing DACA, about 800,000 people will be affected by this action of his. There has been DACA holders who were brought to the U.S at a very young age and only know the U.S as being their only home. With DACA, dreamers were able to further their education and pursue a career in the field of study they chose in school, as the diagram below shows, 96% of DACA recipients are either employed and/or in school.
Source: Figure 2
While some have supported and defended DACA, others have opposed the program such as Rep. Steve King, Republican from Iowa, who has made some statements about DACA recipients and encourages them to turn in their parents to federal immigration agents. This reminds me of the novel, Waiting for the Barbarians, by J.M Coetzee because the barbarians are seen as “different” due to their appearance and where they live just as immigrants are looked down upon merely because they come from another country. Although, it is understandable that DACA applicants should undergo a background check, one’s sole appearance, ethnicity and cultural backgrounds should not be the main focus to label someone a “criminal” or “rapist” as Trump first stated when running his campaign and referring to Mexican immigrants.
The novel Waiting for the Barbarians also views the barbarians as rapist and criminals. Coetzee writes, “…no man who has not frightened himself with visions of the barbarians carousing in his home, breaking the plates, setting fire to the curtains, raping his daughters”(Coetzee 8). The barbarians in the novel are perceived as criminals and rapists yet, the soldiers in the novel have gone into stores and have left the store without paying for what they take. There is hypocrisy and the generalization that people from other parts of the world are different than the people in one’s own country.
Trump did however, sympathize for Dreamers, but failed them when making the decision to end DACA. When I first heard the news that Trump had decided to remove DACA, I thought about all the students that would be affected and wondered how they would move forward after hearing this news. My heart shattered for them, the thought of losing everything they had worked hard for would all come to an end. Trump promised during his campaign that he would expand the economy, with DACA there has been a growth in the economy because DACA recipients have since purchased cars, houses and their careers have created higher tax revenue. It is only hoped that he will develop a more permanent solution and open a pathway to residency or citizenship for Dreamers and allow them to live their lives free of fear of deportation.
Image Source:
Header Source:
Works Cited:
Coetzee, J. M. Waiting for the Barbarians. Penguin Books, 1982. Print.
Being Aware 
Leave a comment