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Tribune Editorial: Reyes can do more for Utah’s DREAMers

Utah should stand with immigrant children

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Atticus Juarez, 3, nephew of Silvia Juarez, who was detained by ICE agents in a Michaels parking lot last week in front of her 8-year-old daughter, joins family and friends in support of family. Mormon Women for Ethical Government and other concerned citizens gathered at the Department of Homeland Security field office in West Valley City on Wed. May 3, 2017, in a show of solidarity for a young mother and her family.

But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.”

-James Truslow Adams, Epic of America

The American Dream is an idea, a founding principle, that has inspired many towards success and prosperity. Inherent in this principle is that, because we are a nation of immigrants, the American Dream applies to immigrants as well.

Undocumented immigrants, though, do not always share in the American dream. They hide in the shadow of an arbitrary and confusing immigration framework. Immigrants who came to America as children, at the very least, should not bear these burdens.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program defers deportation of persons who were brought to the United States as children under the age of 16, who meet other requirements. DACA defers removal for two years, subject to renewal, and grants the recipient work authorization.

Appropriately, people who have received relief under DACA are known as “DREAMers” after the legislation meant to grant residency for minors, the Development, Relief, and Education for Minors – or DREAM – Act, which has never passed. Utah has had more than 10,500 DREAMers in the last five years.

Recently, the Attorney General of Texas informed the Trump administration it would sue the federal government to stop the DACA program if President Trump refused to rescind it. Nine other states joined with Texas.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, thankfully, did not join the letter demanding rescission of the DACA program. But his failure to join Texas’s initiative is hardly praiseworthy. He also did not join a letter sent by 20 state attorneys general expressing support for the DACA program. 

Reyes has the ability to make a difference on the immigration front, especially as it relates to children who have lived here for much of their lives. Utah has led out on immigration before. The Utah Compact, signed in 2010, supported a more compassionate approach to immigration reform, including keeping families together and acknowledging the value of a free society. As the son of a Filipino immigrant, Reyes should be particularly sensitive to the immigrants’ plight.

According to a Morning Consult and Politico poll, 78 percent of registered voters support allowing DREAMers to remain in the country. Ending the DACA program would signal an attack on undocumented immigrants, who might then feel fearful about participating in their communities, including working, sending children to school, reporting crimes or receiving necessary medical care.

These children know no other home. This is their home. They are Americans, and they are entitled to the American Dream.