A large percentage of the political class uses the argument that, “The children should not be PUNISHED for the illegal behavior of their parents.” The opposite argument that, “The children should not be REWARDED for the illegal behavior of their parents” is conveniently ignored. To me, this is the crux of the problem.
There is no question that the DACA children, many of whom are now adults and many of whom know of their parents’ illegal actions, have received substantial benefit from the American taxpayers. From schools, healthcare, housing, food, and welfare, they are far better off than they would have otherwise been. In other words, they have reaped the reward of law breaking thanks to the American taxpayer.
Supposedly, we are a nation of laws and not of rulers. At times, this means that tough decisions have to be made to right wrongs, even when those wrongs seem innocent. By the way, try telling a judge “I didn’t know” as the response is likely to be, “Ignorance of the Law is no excuse.” Sadly, we had a president, Barack Obama, who recognized he did not have the constitutional legal authority to grant some form of amnesty yet, as any imperial ruler would do, he did it anyway.
Moving on:
It is difficult to find out just how many DACA individuals are in the country. The figures quoted for a total number of such individuals in America is about 800,000, but it could easily be a couple of million considering that figure really only captures those who have self-identified as part of the Obama program. Nobody knows for sure, but the lower number favors amnesty because the political class will argue that it is but a relatively small number. If the truth is in the millions, they will just “ho hum” and issue a “we didn’t know” apology that really isn’t an apology at all.
The next question is how many work and how many are on welfare. The numbers again vary quite a bit, but about half seems reasonable based on an Internet search of a variety of sources. Actually, the number could be quite a bit higher but 400,000 working DACA individuals seem reasonable. However, to be honest, it could be half or less of that number (unless there are actually millions of DACA individuals in the country).
The next question is how many DACA individuals are skilled and how many are unskilled. I am sure the Bureau of Labor statistics could provide some numbers but the definitions continue to change so providing a number would be misleading. However, since most of the DACA folks are relatively young, it seems reasonable to assume that most are going to be unskilled. Thus, they directly compete with American citizen children seeking a first job and entry level unskilled Americans who may try to get off welfare and into the workforce.
The final vexing question is what to do with the DACA individuals. The conventional wisdom is they can’t be thrown out of the country. This is, of course, quite untrue, as there is precedent after World War II. One can argue about the effectiveness of “Operation Wetback,” but not about whether it happened. At this point, the political class, against the wishes of a large percentage of the American citizenry, seems destined to either grant some form of legal presence for the DACA individuals, all the way from semi-permanent restricted legal status to outright amnesty. Of course, being the champions of virtue that they are, the political class may just do nothing.
If Congress, in its infinite wisdom or lack thereof, creates a pathway to legality for the DACA individuals, there will almost certainly be wave after wave of future refugees who will eventually overwhelm the country as has happened in California and is now happening throughout Western Europe. The USA of the future will likely lose its history, its constitution, and its individual rights. The seeds of historic destruction are being sown now in places like Charlottesville, Berkeley, Boston, and others.