DREAM Act Portal Forum - Why Texas needs Donald Trump to make the Dreamer program permanent

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We're glad to see President Donald Trump give a reprieve — even if it is temporary — to hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants who were brought to this country as small children.

For months, 800,000 of these so-called Dreamers have lived with uncertainty that the president would make good on his pledge to "immediately terminate" the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides them protection to work and go to school in the U.S.

On the campaign trail, Trump called the program an "illegal executive amnesty" and promised to end it immediately. He's smart to change course, allowing the Dreamers to stay and renew their permits every two years — at least for now.
The Trump administration stressed that this decision is temporary, that the president has still not decided the long-term fate of the program, put in place by President Barack Obama in 2012.

Here's why Trump should make this reprieve permanent: Deporting the Dreamers is unworkable and not in the best interest of this country. It punishes achievers, many of whom didn't even know they were here illegally.

Take DACA recipient Karla Perez, 24, who along with other Texas Dreamers was a 2015 finalist for Texan of the Year. She was just 2 when her parents brought her to Texas from Mexico City. She graduated from high school here. She's now pursuing a law degree at the University of Houston and is one of the bright young civil rights leaders in this state.

We've long argued that missing from Trump's tough talk is a sense of the fiscal, logistical and humanitarian realities involved in his anti-immigration everyone-must-go-now approach. We need comprehensive immigration reform for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, not policies that create chaos.

Beyond the humanitarian and logistical concerns, there are real economic consequences. That's especially true in Texas, where there are 141,000 DACA recipients — the second-highest in the country.

The Center for American Progress estimates that the Texas economy would lose $6.1 billion annually if 100,000 workers were deported. About 55,000 of them own vehicles. They pay taxes and buy and sell goods. Many of them are in college.
If they're deported, they no longer will pump money back into their communities and may not be able to be able to pay back loans for mortgages, cars and higher education.
This state can't afford to lose those kinds of positive contributions.
As with many of Trump's immigration policies (activists are still battling his travel ban in the courts), there was initial confusion surrounding this policy announcement last week.

Jonathan Hoffman, with the Department of Homeland Security, stressed that DACA needs to be handled "with compassion and with heart."
That's a reassuring sentiment.

We're hopeful it means that Trump will realize the value of the Dreamers to this country and allow them to continue to get on about the business of studying, working and raising families here.

Interesting read.