House Passes New Dream & Promise Act

By Jennie L. Ilustre

The House of Representatives in the 118th U.S. Congress has passed The Dream and Promise Act, with features from past proposed legislation, as well as new provisions.

The bill seeks to grant protections for Dreamers, also known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, or those who were brought to the country as children and minors without authorization. Also included in the new bill are people who fled their home countries due to natural calamities or wars, and continue their stay under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure programs.

Kathy Ko Chin, president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), welcomed the new bill.  She pointed out: “The Dream and Promise Act is a step in the right direction, creating an earned pathway to citizenship for 2.5 million immigrant youth and people with temporary protected status or deferred enforced departure. We encourage the Senate to work toward a fix and pushback against the regressive immigration policies from the Trump Administration.”

“The DACA program has provided immigrant children and young adults, many from Asia and Pacific Islands, an opportunity at a better life and one without fear of deportation,” she stressed. There are about 16,000 Asians who are DACA recipients. DACA recipients are also referred to as Dreamers, an acronym from past legislation.

According to Huffpost news site, advocates generally hailed the new bill. But they are concerned about the bill’s provision that grants the homeland security secretary the discretion to deny legal status to immigrants who committed misdemeanors during their youth or for being members of certain gangs.

Huffost reported Rachel Marshall, the federal policy counsel for Campaign for Youth Justice, and other advocates from 26 other youth organizations, who expressed concern that the new bill criminalizes juvenile mistakes and exacerbates systemic racism, wrote Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, urging them not to pass the bill in its current form.

The report added advocates acknowledge the new bill includes important reforms, like guaranteed access to legal counsel and a waiver for marijuana or civil-disobedience misdemeanors during the application process.

Election Issue

According to Huffpost, the new bill is the latest attempt of the Democrats to pass a Dreamers bill, which has never made it past the Republican Senate since2001.

Rodney Jaleco, associate editor of Manila Mail community paper based in the Greater Metro D.C. Area, said the DACA or Dreamers issue is a top priority of Democrats, who genuinely want to pass a comprehensive immigration reform legislation to fix the nation’s broken system.

 He also linked the determination of the Democrats in the House of Representatives to keep the Dreamers issue alive with next year’s elections.

Remarked Jaleco: “Despite the popularity of DACA or Dreamers issue among Americans –in the 70-80 percent range, depending on where or when you’re looking–the new bill has slim-to-zilch chances of passing in the Republican-controlled Senate, much less getting signed by the current president.” The mainstream media noted majority of Americans, regardless of party, are in favor of DACA.

Jaleco  added: “It will be a potent wedge issue, however. in the 2020 elections precisely because of the popular support, the Democratic foil to President Trump’s hardline posture on immigration. The Democrats will likely keep DACA at the forefront for the next several months.”

He noted that It is highly unlikely The Dream and Promise Act, like the comprehensive immigration reform, is going to get very far about 16 months away from the next presidential elections. “As candidates stump across the nation, the Dreamers issue–thanks to the House passage–could well be fodder for campaign speeches.”

Jaleco added that Democrats love the Dreamers or DACA, an emotional and political issue to the Democratic voter base. “Senate Republicans know this. I expect them to use Dreamers or DACA as leverage in negotiations for legislative and program priorities. DACA could mutate and would likely be defined more by how strong Democrats hold the line and how badly Trump and theSenate Republicans want to get their priority legislation done.  Those priorities could range from funding Trump’s border wall to crafting a new budget for the next fiscal year.”

Jaleco said the DACA or Dreamers issue “will live or die according to who wins next year’s elections.” He added the Supreme Court and the lower tribunals have signaled that they are not yet ready to wade into DACA. Last January, it declined a review of a suit aimed at overturning the Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA program. Various federal court injunctions allow the government to renew current DACA recipients, but it cannot accept new applicants.