Paxton-led threat to DACA youth is misguided

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with his counterparts from nine other states, recently sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The letter asserted that if the Executive Branch agrees to phase out the program by Sept. 5, the Texas, et al. v. United States, et al. lawsuit will be scrapped. Otherwise, the litigation will be executed.

The letter followed on the heels of the June 15 announcement by U.S. Homeland Security Director John Kelly that while the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Legal Residents (DAPA) program has been rescinded, the DACA program remains in effect. Subsequent clarification indicated that the long-term fate of DACA is still unclear. The DACA program, created by President Barack Obama through an executive order in 2012, can gain permanency only via an act of Congress. As such, the fate of the 788,000 persons who hold a DACA permit remains uncertain.

It is extremely disappointing to see Paxton at the forefront of a movement to dehumanize and take away the valuable privileges that have been extended to young people afforded DACA coverage, rights that allow them to come out of the shadows. Paxton and his co-signers refer to DACA beneficiaries as “otherwise unlawfully present aliens,” venomous daggers that puncture the humanity of these young people who for the most part have only known the United States as their home.

Those who have gained deferred action are upstanding young persons whose parents brought them to the United States before the age of 16 and who were between the ages of 15 and 30 on June 15, 2012. At the time that they applied to the program, they needed to be enrolled in school, have a high school diploma or GED equivalency or be “an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces” of the U.S. They were also required to “have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors, and not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.” These young people are not criminals.

The DACA program permits participants to come out of the shadows and to make constructive contributions to their communities, state and nation. Work permits allow those with DACA status to earn fair wages, pay taxes and put to use their experience, credentials and degrees in the workplace. Without the allowances that the DACA program grants, DACA recipients would be shoved to the margins of society where they would lack access to higher education or workforce training and face exploitation and subpar wages in the underground workforce. This is exactly where Paxton seeks to have DACA beneficiaries.

Unfortunately, Paxton’s vicious, menacing and mean-spirited goal is not unique among public officials. Nine other attorneys general, as well as the governor of Idaho, C.L. “Butch” Otter, who also signed the letter to Sessions, share Paxton’s views. In addition, Paxton’s own far-right Republican colleagues in Texas have increasingly proved that they have no sympathy for DACA recipients and unauthorized immigrants more generally. At the federal level, President Donald Trump and Sessions are not allies of the DACA program. Despite his words that he likes DACA holders and that they are safe, Trump’s ever-vacillating beliefs and actions bring no sense of comfort or security.

Supporters of DACA beneficiaries must turn up the heat on their political representatives, along with Trump, Sessions and Kelly to ensure that Paxton & friends’ threatening letter does not realize its goal. DACA holders are not “otherwise unlawfully present aliens.” They are our children, relatives, friends, students and workers.

Paxton’s threat is misguided and should be quashed.

These are productive young people, and they only want to better themselves and our nation. Why would we not want them among us?