This letter was originally published in the November 2017 Princeton Echo.
The Trump Administration just released its immigration priorities wish list — a combination of ramped-up border and interior enforcement; expanded criminal penalties to once civil violations; and severely restricted future immigration. Particularly insidious is the intent to condition legal status for DREAMers on Congress approving these restrictions. DREAMers are the young people brought to the United States by their parents and made newly vulnerable by President Trump’s decision to rescind President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The White House’s decision to threaten DREAMers reminds me of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid described by an immigrant mother at a church-organized meeting in Trenton more than a decade ago. Responding to ICE officers knocking on their door, the family hid in the basement. Soon after they heard the basement door open, and the officers descended, guns pointed. They gathered the family in the basement but didn’t see their target. The officers showed a picture of the man to the woman’s child. The boy acknowledged recognizing his father. The officers instructed the boy to show them where his father hid.
Conditioning legal status for DREAMers on approving the administration’s anti-immigrant wish list seems akin to ICE coercing the son to betray his father — but expanded to a national scale. Besides pitting children against parents, the Trump Administration initiatives divide communities by design. Under the pretext of public safety, the initiatives seek to create a wedge between local police and immigrants in their community. Deputizing local police as immigration enforcers discourages immigrants from reporting crimes as victims and witnesses, making everyone less safe. What’s more, the administration attacks Sanctuary Cities — punishing community compassion by undermining public safety programs.
On the heels of turning police on immigrants, the administration now seeks enhanced measures to turn employers against immigrants, creating another wedge. The hope is to institute enough pressure points that immigrants self-deport. Attacking families and communities: the administration’s immigration initiatives are ultimately self-defeating for our country. This shouldn’t be surprising. The government says it wants to eliminate the incentives for immigrants to come to the United States. By turning out the light of hope that draws people to our shores, the administration puts all of us in the shadows.
If DACA proved anything, it’s that immigrants’ dreams can brighten our future, rather than threaten it. Let’s pass a clean DREAM Act and put these ill-conceived, mean-spirted initiatives behind us.
— Ryan Stark Lilienthal, Princeton
The writer is an attorney specializing in immigration and nationality law.
