President Trump right to give notice to Congress that young immigrants must be given permanent legal status.

President Trump made the right decision to give a 6-month notice to Congress that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will be ending.  These children and young adults, who were illegally brought into the U.S. as children and have lived here for many years, should be given permanent legal status – and not be subjected to the temporary whims of any President.  The vast majority of U.S. citizens agree that these young people should be allowed to stay in the U.S. legally.  Even if Congress cannot come to an agreement on general immigration reform, they should be able to come to an agreement to let these kids stay.  Contact your U.S. Senators and Representative and let them know that you want a permanent solution to let these young people stay in the U.S.

Trump should work with Obama to allay fears of dreamers

Some Democrats have suggested that President Obama pardon the 750,000 “Dreamers” who fear that President-elect Trump will deport them.  The Dreamers are young people who, while they were still young children, were brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents . President Obama used his executive power to grant them temporary legal status if they registered with the federal government through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The dreamers, and their friends and family, fear that the registration information they provided to the government will now be used by President-elect Trump to find and deport them.  Surely, we should not penalize these children and young adults who have made a good faith effort to become legal residents.  For many of them, the United States is the only home they have ever known.  Maybe they should not be given a path to citizenship, but we should allow them to stay there legally.  I hope that President-elect Trump will support these young people, and announce his support publicly.  This good faith effort would very much help to allay the fears of many of those who have continued to protest the election of Trump.

 

Anti-immigration feelings – some things never change

In 1862 California passed the, “Act to protect free white labor against competition with Chinese coolie labor, and to discourage the immigration of Chinese into the State of California.” Some things never change. Even though we are not that many generations away from our own ancestor immigrants, once we get settled, we don’t want others to come in and change things.

Immigrants are both producers and consumers. They are mostly honest and hard working people – looking for a better life for themselves and their families. We need to allow illegals some way to become legal. I don’t think there should be a pathway to citizenship, but there should be a pathway to legality. The path should require payment of a penalty, and immigrants should not have access to our taxpayer funded safety net until they become legal, but deportation is not the right answer.

David Young – right on immigration

David Young has the right position on immigration.  What penalty should be paid by illegal immigrants, some of whom have lived and worked here for many years?  Just as the penalty for most crimes is not death or prison, the penalty for illegal immigration should not be limited to deportation.  Those who illegally immigrated as adults should be subject to some type of penalty, such as a fine, but still be allowed a path to legal status.  That legal status does not necessarily have to include a path to citizenship.  That penalty might also limit access to our welfare safety net for a specified number of years. Young suggests that we provide a path to a guest worker status or a “green card” status.  He recognizes that we need to secure our borders, but he also understands that we need to, “put a face” on these fellow human beings.”  Most immigrants, including illegal immigrants, are just looking for a better life for themselves and their families, just like most of our own ancestors.  By taking this position on immigration, Young has shown that he is an independent thinker and does not blindly follow the Republican party line.  Although I disagree with him on other issues, I believe he is clearly the best candidate to represent Iowa in Congress.