Eight hundred thousand Americans trusted our government when they registered to become “legal” under the DACA program.
They believed that by following the rules, this country, into which they arrived as children and for all intents and purposes is their home country, would accept them as legal immigrants.
Now, Trump has terminated the DACA program and threatens to begin deportations within six months. The “Dreamers” who trusted are now vulnerable and at risk. All their personal information is in government files, available to Immigration and Customs Enforcement whenever it decides to come after these people, who are our people – our neighbors, our colleagues, our friends, employees and service providers.
This threat and fear extracts a cost, both on Dreamers and on all of us who believe that this injustice does not and should not represent who we are as Americans.
Moreover, it destroys the possibility of success for any future government program that asks people to trust a commitment. No longer can anyone trust our government to do what it promises; anything can change whenever a self-serving, deceptive huckster or ideologue rises to power.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.
