Dreamers in America
The U.S.-Mexico Foundation (USMF) is making an effort to put the Dreamers back at the center of discussions of the bilateral relationship. As part of this initiative, a series of action items for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are presented here.
The USMF maintains the position that the best way to regularize the stay of undocumented youth who came to the United States as children is through comprehensive immigration reform. However, it recognizes DACA as a valuable program that has helped hundreds of thousands of young Mexicans to come out of the shadows and make a living in the United States. Likewise, it reaffirms the importance of this program being sustained and improved, as long as there is no permanent solution.
DACA is a program registered within the prosecutorial discretion of the Executive branch in order to defer the deportation of young people who came to the United States as children. This is, in simple terms, a temporary waiver by the State of their right to deport a person who does not have permission to reside in the country.
Based on these considerations, 4 lines of action are recommended to make DACA a better platform for those who continue to depend on it. They range from modifications to the program to parallel actions to improve the living conditions and the binational ties of the beneficiaries.