The dreamers’ raw deal

It has been nine years since the Obama administration established a program to give some semblance of security to “dreamers,” the young migrants brought to this country as children by their parents, and 20 years since a bill was first introduced in Congress to grant them similar breathing space, including protection from deportation and permission to work. Overwhelmingly, Americans of both parties favor extending those privileges permanently, and on Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans alike offer sympathetic-sounding statements of support.

Yet even now the dreamers’ fate continues to hang in the balance, with no legislation passed to protect them and no longterm assurance that they can remain in the United States. Successive administrations and Congresses have failed to normalize the lives of well over 1 million dreamers, most of whom, having arrived in this country at the age of 7 or younger, are now in their 20s and 30s.

Can there be many more telling examples of Washington’s enduring paralysis and dysfunction?

On Monday, the Biden administration proposed an administrative rule that might shield Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the Obama-era program that provides work permits and safety from deportation for dreamers on a two-year, renewable basis. Essentially, the move is a stopgap designed to safeguard the original stopgap - although it may not be sufficient to preserve DACA against an adverse Supreme Court ruling.

The only ironclad guarantee for the dreamers would come in the form of a law enacted by Congress and signed by the president. That prospect has fallen victim again and again to political gamesmanship, posturing, cowardice and hypocrisy. To get anything done will require a bipartisan lift.

So even though more than 7 in 10 Americans, including a majority of Republicans, voice support for giving dreamers permanent legal status, it is a bridge too far on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, real lives are being damaged by that inaction, and make no mistake: Those lives are fully American in every sense but the narrowest legal one.

Those without the protections conferred by DACA can be deported at any time; most also cannot drive legally and have slim chances of securing a college degree. While some states have enacted laws enabling DACA recipients to get driver’s licenses and access affordable higher education via instate tuition at public colleges and universities, other states have not. Most migrants without driver’s licenses and college degrees are consigned to a life on the margins of the only country they consider theirs.

Dreamers are unique. Having been brought to the country as babies, toddlers and teens, they were handed a raw deal. It’s a disgrace we can’t resolve it.