Our Voice: DACA fix needed this year, not next

About 800,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children and know no other home are hoping for a Christmas miracle – that Congress pass legislation by the end of the year so they can live without fear of deportation.

We would like to see them get their wish.

U.S. Senators Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., are pushing hard for such an outcome, as is U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.

There is bipartisan support in both chambers to help those caught in this unfortunate immigration limbo, but disagreement over legislative details is keeping a solution from moving forward as quickly as it should.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was established in 2012 by former President Barack Obama. It provided legal protections for individuals who came to our country as kids with undocumented parents.

Through no fault of their own they are considered non-citizens, even though many of them have no memory of living anywhere else. A fair number don’t realize their situation until after they graduate from high school. That’s when they often find out the future they planned on could be limited because of their legal status.

So DACA was created as a stop-gap. It wasn’t a exactly a path to citizenship, but it allowed qualified individuals to receive work permits, attend college, get a driver’s license and join the military. Of course, the greatest benefit was finally having some certainty in their lives, and an ability to plan.

To be eligible, applicants had to meet certain requirements — such as no criminal record, for example, and they either had to be enrolled in high school or already have earned a diploma.

But Obama’s executive order was repealed by President Donald Trump in September, forcing Congress to come up with a permanent system for DACA recipients by March, 2018.

And the clock has been ticking ever since.

Newhouse and 34 other members of the House GOP caucus sent a letter last week to Speaker Paul Ryan asking him to put a permanent solution for DACA on the floor before the end of the year.

“Dreamers did what their government asked them to do,” said the letter. “They came out of the shadows, paid a fee, passed a background check, and got a job or enrolled in school. They are making real contributions to the only country they have ever known to be home.”

In the letter, Republican House members also said it is necessary to act immediately because many “DACA recipients are about to lose or already have lost their permits in the wake of the program’s rescission.”

However, there appears to be no sense of urgency from some key Congressional leaders who want to focus on finalizing a tax bill and a spending bill. They want to push the DACA discussion into next year.

But the anxiety for those affected by the delay is terrible. A solution should be found now.

Murray made a floor speech last week imploring Senate Republicans to support immediate passage of the DREAM Act. Keeping the Dreamers in limbo is “just wrong,” she said. “Holding up their futures — or sending them to a country they’ve never known — makes no sense for them or our country.”

She is right. We’ve already made a substantial investment in shaping these students into good citizens. To squander potential contributions these kids can make to our country’s future because of their parents’ actions makes no economic or moral sense.

On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said he thought a bipartisan deal was getting close.

We certainly hope so. And we hope lawmakers in the House can make a push as well.

With only a couple weeks before Congress breaks for the holidays, time is running out to give Dreamers the Christmas gift they need the most.

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Our Voice: DACA fix needed this year, not next."