Immigration Policy Pros And Cons

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Immigration policy has been a controversial issue in America since the beginning of the 19th century. Later on in history, there were acts such as the 1921 Emergency Quota Act and the Chinese Exclusion Act passed to limit immigration into the United States. As the United States has modernized, the issue of immigration has still not been solved. One of the controversial topics regarding immigration in recent years is the fate of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, commonly known as DACA. DACA symbolizes the harsh reality of immigration policies and its effect on the American morale.
Many immigration policies outline the future for adults willing to enter the United States. However, for a long time the children who were brought here by their
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However, one may not realize why DACA is so important. DACA allows for people to get jobs that provide them with health benefits and enough pay to feed their families (Dickerson, 2017). This may not be a possibility in that person’s home country. Is it really humane to kick a person out of the country, knowing that they could have done nothing to prevent coming here illegally? Is it also humane to be referring to these people as “illegals” or “aliens”? If people break immigration policy, they should be held accountable. However, when people are in need, why are we as a country making the path to citizenship so difficult? These are important questions to reflect on when discussing the purpose and future of DACA in …show more content…
With the Trump administration taking over, DACA has already been set to expire in March of 2018. President Trump called Congress to find a more permanent solution for DACA within that period in order to protect the Dreamers (United We Dream & National Immigration Law Center, 2017). Unfortunately, instead of being sensitive to the topic when announcing this decision, it was another insensitive message about immigrants. On September 5, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of DACA. He referred to those protected under DACA as being “a group of illegal aliens” who were stealing jobs from Americans. He went even further to call DACA a form of amnesty (Blitzer 2017). This is blatant disrespect for those protected by DACA. Insinuating that these people are getting amnesty is in fact a way of backhandedly calling them criminals. However, how can you be a criminal when you weren’t even an active participant in a crime? Certainty those under DACA are not criminals as “ninety-seven percent of applicants are pursuing their education or in the workforce, and not one of them have a criminal history” (Blitzer 2017). As stated earlier, receiving DACA is not easy. There is a multitude of very specific criteria that needs to be met to even be considered. It is not only disrespectful but also highly ignorant to refer to DACA recipients as criminals. It is understandable that our immigration policy does need revising,