It was an unpleasant coincidence that the same day thousands of Kansas households received fundraising letters from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt the news broke that President Donald Trump was rescinding DACA, the program that allows safe harbor to children of illegal immigrants who have made their way to the United States.
Schmidt is one of 10 attorneys general who had threatened to file suit against the U.S. government unless DACA was overturned by Tuesday, saying such legislation should not be a president’s prerogative. Of course it was because of Congress’s inability to pass comprehensive immigration reform that President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2012. The temporary act expires next March.
DACA has saved more than 800,000 youths from being deported, allowing them to attend school and join the workforce under closely supervised conditions. As of Oct. 5, the U.S. government will begin targeting these youths for deportation.
Though it pains us to say this, Schmidt’s anti-immigrant stance has placed himself in the company of Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, and his alt-right views. Now a regular columnist for Breitbart News, Kobach recently categorized these immigrant youths as “gangbangers” who threaten the American way of life.
This is outright bigotry.
For most of these youths, the United States is the only home they have known. Their parents brought them here in hopes of giving them a better life. No, these children — these “Dreamers” — did not come here legally. But they should not be punished for the mistakes of their parents.
But cut the mush.
What is the cost to the United States to deport this segment of our population?
According to Forbes Magazine — a must read for the suspenders and cuff-links crowd — the CEOs of 400 manufacturers have recently urged President Trump to retain DACA.
Why?
Hello. Employees. And good ones.
Of the country’s top Fortune 500 companies, almost 72 percent employ Dreamers.
If deported, this segment of the workforce would cost $460.3 billion to the nation’s GDP and another $24.6 billion in Social Security and Medicare tax contributions.
MR. TRUMP has given Congress six months to replace DACA with new legislation or it dies.
They have no time to lose.
Because the country’s moral and economic fiber depends on an immigration policy that welcomes diversity and allows extenuating circumstances such as the Dreamers, it should jump to the front of the legislative calendar.
If not, it’s our loss.
And worse, our shame to bear.
— Susan Lynn
