What about the 'dreamers' who serve us? - By Leon E. Panetta
By Leon E. Panetta September 4 at 8:24 PM
Leon E. Panetta, secretary of defense from 2011 to 2013, is chairman of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
In October 1921, my Italian father arrived in the United States aboard the Providence, one of 1,800 third-class passengers searching for a better life in this country. At Ellis Island, he listed his total assets as $25 and his profession simply as “peasant.”
My parents became U.S. citizens, but my mother’s dad — my Nono — who had come from Italy to stay with us in Monterey, Calif., in the early 1940s, was not a citizen. In 1942, after Pearl Harbor, some 10,000 Italians living in California coastal areas were targeted for removal because it was suspected that they would be a threat to the country during wartime. The order did not apply to U.S. citizens, but it did apply to my Nono, and he was forced to leave us and move inland. I was only 4, but I can still remember my tears as I struggled to understand why my Nono had to leave our family.
Fast-forward almost exactly 75?years, and again America is contemplating removing people who, though not citizens, have been living in the United States lawfully, serving as productive members of our society. This time, however, the government is contemplating not temporary orders to “move inland” but outright deportation of individuals from the country. The targeted population are the “dreamers,” young men and women who were brought to the United States as children by their undocumented parents. They have attended school here, spoken English and grown up as Americans.
In 2012, the Department of Homeland Security created DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — to provide up to 2 million dreamers the chance for temporary protection from deportation and the opportunity to seek legal work permits. These dreamers must be vetted through a vigorous application process. To qualify for DACA, they had to have entered the United States prior to age 16, have resided in this country since 2007 , be in school or have graduated, and pose no threat to public safety.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/let-dreamers-live-the-american-dream/2017/09/04/0b1dbb02-9177-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html
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