When news like this drops on a holiday weekend, sometimes it's easy to miss. Especially on a holiday like Memorial Day. Many of us are at the lake or getting ready for a barbecue. So let's see it again, from the top, Sam:
Late last week, a couple of federal courts ruled for the DACA kids and against the administration. The DACA part stands for that program more officially called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but they're much better known as Dreamers. As in, you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.
That's the simple way to put it, and probably the simplistic way. For the current president has had many good things to say about the Dreamer kids in the past. But, according to his spokeswoman, who used to live around here somewhere: "[E]very single time that we have put forward or anyone else has put forward any type of immigration plan that has included DACA, it's failed." If you think she sounds frustrated, she'll probably be glad you don't misunderstand.
But a couple of courts have put the brakes on a few of the administration's sans-DACA policies. Doubtless this'll all be settled when these lawsuits finally make their way to the United States Supreme Court, but that might take years. And even then, this nation's highest court is likely to rule on a technicality and send the whole problem back down to the minors for another year or three. This court's favorite play is the punt.
We'd like to see this president's sensible immigration plan separated from the DACA policy, and make our betters in Congress vote on each of them. We'd like to see who'd (1) be against a sensible immigration plan that includes a wall on the southern border and (2) who'd be heartless enough to send kids to countries they've never known.
Remember, many (if not most) Dreamers were brought here before they could walk or talk. Many don't remember the countries in which they were born. The only nation they've known is the United States of Red White and Blue America, go Cowboys and woo-pig-sooie. If they speak a foreign language, it may be only to talk to the old folks at home. They probably speak better English than many of us at work and school.
Take a gander at your last name. And the last name of your neighbors. And professors, doctors and candlestick makers. Immigrants aren't doomed to exist in the dark shadows of a permanent underclass in this country. Not unless they're sentenced there by convoluted immigration laws that penalize folks who don't deserve it. Does anybody deserve paying for the sins of their fathers?
And remember, the younger the kid, the faster they make up ground when it comes to language and culture. Why, of course. That's why you gotta get 'em while they're young, when their brains are like sponges. They become red-blooded Americans as soon as they decide upon a favorite football team, and we don't mean soccer.
We should be educating these young people, not discouraging them. Who knows which one will cure cancer or explore the stars? Or write the Great American Novel or be awarded the Navy Cross or pitch a perfect game in the World Series.
They don't call this the Land of Opportunity for nothing. That phrase ought to mean something more than just a slogan on license plates. There are times when the need for simple justice coincides with a great opportunity for the country. This is such a time--if we would recognize it.
Each immigrant testifies to the gravitational pull and undimmed promise of America in the world. ("A simple way to take the measure of a country is to look at how many want in ... and how many want out."--Tony Blair.) America continues to pass that test--with flying red, white and blue colors. May she always.
This story never gets old, perhaps because America always seems to re-invent itself. Actually, it doesn't do that by itself; it takes people. And if this country's people ever stop beginning again, it won't be America.
Protect the Dreamers. Protect the DACA children.
We the People can do at least that much, while we seek fixes in the (seemingly always) broken immigration system in other places.
Editorial on 05/29/2019